


Duties and Choices

by wolf3223



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Adventure, Arranged Marriage, Disaster Lesbian Beau, F/F, Fluff, Multi, Nonbinary Caduceus Clay, Nonbinary Mollymauk Tealeaf, Our favorite characters in my own world, Royalty AU, Slow Burn, Useless Gays, Yall wanted Jester Beau and Yasha to be gay together as much as i did so here we go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2019-06-17 07:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 21,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15456558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolf3223/pseuds/wolf3223
Summary: On the matriarchal continent of Efoa, the two countries, Dreyos and Thaydor, have a strained relationship at best. But now, along with the newer royal family in Thaydor, the Queens come to an agreement. With their consent, their daughters will wed in order to strengthen their relations in this trying time where beasts seem to grow more bold. Those daughters just so happen to be Beau and Yasha.





	1. Chapter 1

Fjord and Beau circle each other in their favorite training area belonging to the Cobalt Soul. It’s a daily occurrence, and the monks have long since learned to let them be. 

Today, however, is unusual in that Beau is more frustrated, angrier, than usual. An interaction with her father does that. He had jovially informed her that she will need to go to the throne room later to talk to him and her mother. The fact that he was so happy to tell her, that could mean one of two things. One, he's possessed by a ghost-person that actually likes her. Or two, she's in trouble or is about to be told something that’ll make her miserable. Sadly, the latter is much more likely. 

Fjord has known Beau long enough to know when she doesn’t want to talk about it, and immediately after the delightful encounter with her father, he dragged her towards the training grounds. They left Jester to rush off and grab breakfast for them, which the blue tiefling was more than happy to do. 

Beau grits her teeth and takes a deep breath, using her training to center herself. She darts forward to close the space between Fjord and herself before swinging her bo. It moves in a perfect arc and Fjord doesn’t manage to move out of the way. Instead, his attempt to dodge gets him more in the way. 

The bo hits his temple with a resounding crack that echoes in the clearing. Beau winces at the sound, letting out a quiet sympathetic “ooh” as Fjord stumbles at the side. One of his hand holds his falchion while the other goes up to his head. 

“Sorry Fjord, I thought you saw that coming.”

“It’s alright,” he’s quick to assure her. 

Fjord shakes his head and attempts to refocus as he swings with his falchion, but it completely misses Beau. She retaliates automatically, using the wide opening he left to crack him in the ribs. He lets out a grunt, his face screwing up briefly with pain.

Fjord takes a moment to take in a few deep breaths that aren’t exactly painless, and Beau doesn’t attack again, concern once again showing through her anger. He waves off her concern and stands up straight again from his hunched over position and nods to her.

“You’re doing real good today.” His voice sounds more strained than usual and he manages to grimace-smile at her.

Beau doesn’t make the first move and Fjord flexes his grip on his falchion before moving towards her to be able to attack. As he attempts to hit her again, his side twinges and it goes wide again. Beau moves to his right side and she swings her bo towards him, but he's starting to show the pain on his face more and her concern wins over her desire for victory. He still looks pretty dazed from that unexpected headshot and her bo doesn’t even connect, instead swinging wide, leaving a good couple inches between him and her attack.

Fjord shakes his head again, seeing that Beau’s about to call their training session on account of his absentmindedness. Determined, he pulls himself together and slashes towards her, surprising them both when it connects with Beau's arm and cuts a small wound down her upper arm that begins to slowly ooze blood after a moment.

With renewed vigor, Beau swings her staff again, some of the blood flying off her arm as she does so. She swings low and sweeps Fjord’s legs from under him. 

He lets out a “Wha?” as he falls flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him. 

“Ready for a break? I have donuts!” Jester cries from where she's standing a safe distance away, outside of the training area. She makes eye contact with Fjord and grins. “Are you okay, Fjord? I saw Beau knock you on your ass!”

“I’m good,” he says, sounding strained.

Beau holds out her hand and helps Fjord stand. She looks to Jester as he brushes the dust off his armor. Her stomach growls discontentedly, reminding her that she didn’t manage to eat much this morning. Knowing that she can't avoid her parents forever, they’ll have to make their way over to them soon. Beau puts away her bo and Fjord sheathes his falchion as they both approach their friend, who happily hands them each a plate of donuts. They sit down on a bench nearby.

“You’ve been hitting extra hard today Beau, which is good. I know you're angry about whatever this is with your parents, and harnessing anger like this is good. In the future, we can work more on you focusing that, so you can use it to your advantage.” Fjord says before biting into his first donut.

“Aren’t those Cobalt Soul guys really good at that kind of thing?” Jester asks.

“Jester, no.” Beau crosses her arms. “I’ve told you guys that I'm not going back there. The only one I can stand is Dairon, and that’s because she's been training me.”

“It helps that you think she's pretty, Beau.” Jester sings and grins at her friend, who scowls at her.

“That’s… that’s irrelevant.” Beau says.

Jester just hums and takes another bite. They finish their donuts, which unlike Jester's pocket pastries, don’t have little pieces of fuzz and fabric that “add texture.” Afterwards, Beau hesitates and glares intently at the ground, debating on waiting and putting it off, or give in that it’s inevitable and talk to her parents. Fjord and Jester, sensing that, make small talk to fill the silence. 

After a couple minutes of contemplating, Beau inhales and leans back. She looks over to them. “Let’s go.”

Fjord and Jester immediately fall quiet and nod, letting their admittedly boring conversation peter out. They fall in step behind Beau as she heads towards the castle. The guards at the entrance eye them as they open the door, allowing Beau, Jester, and Fjord inside. Beau puts her metaphorical mask in place, feigning confidence and calmness as she saunters forward.

The doors to the throne room are opened for them by the guards. Beau resists the urge to flinch when her parents’ eyes go to her as soon as they're open. Her mother quickly dismisses an anxious-looking advisor, gesturing for the three to enter as he rushes away.

“Beauregard,” her mother greets her warmly as they walk forward. “It’s good that you came, we were just about to send someone after you. I had hoped that your father didn’t scare you off.”

“He doesn’t scare me,” Beau says. Now that she's in front of them, her mask is fading, as usual. “What's up?”

Beau’s mother clasps her hands together. “Now dear, we have a… proposal for you.”

Beau nods slowly. “That usually means I won't like it. What have you got?”

“You know what’s happening in Thaydor, correct?”

“I know a little bit. Just what I've overheard in conversations.”

“Let me elaborate, then. I’ll give you an abbreviated version. The previous Queen was greedy and uncaring about the plights of her people. While the poor grew poorer, the rich became richer. It got so extreme that the people overthrew her and some of the less sympathetic rich. They put in a new ruler, known as Queen Magdalen. She and her husband have a few children, but only one daughter. She was adopted by them a few years ago after being dear to them for years. To establish a strong connection with Thaydor, we have been discussing a marriage. Your marriage.”

Beau stares for a moment while her mother waits for her to respond. “The fuck?!”

“Now Beauregard, we don’t take this lightly, and you do have vetoing power. As does the daughter. We ask that, at the very least, you wait until you see and meet her until you make your decision. Allow me to explain, and perhaps it will ease your mind.”

Beau crosses her arms. “I’m listening.”

“Thank you.” Beau’s mother nods to her and then begins. “This was something suggested at first by your father when we first met Queen Magdalen a year ago when she first came to power.” She ignores how Beau mutters “of course it was” and continues. “It wasn’t serious at first, but then we began thinking about the implications. You know that Dreyos and Thaydor have been on the verge of war for nearly a century now, mainly due to the rulers that resided in Thaydor’s capital. United, the continent of Efoa could turn its gaze towards the current threats instead of the other Kingdom. You know better than most that the amount of beast attacks has increased over the past couple years.”

Beau nods. “I do.”

“This is a problem for Efoa as a whole, not just as divided Kingdoms. With this bond as its driving force, our relationship with Thaydor would allow trade to flourish where it has been dwindling.” She takes in a deep breath and gives Beau a loving look. “This isn’t just about our people, Beauregard. I have no doubt we will reach that good point with them with or without this union. But with it, it will speed up the process exponentially, by decades. But Beau,” Beau almost starts in surprise at hearing her preferred nickname falling from her mother’s lips. “You’re turning 24 this year.”

Beau groans. “Oh my gods.”

“No, Beauregard, listen.” She holds up a finger and Beau quiets. She puts it down and continues. “You're almost 24 and you have never brought a woman home to meet us. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just unusual. And while we don’t mind, the people are beginning to get concerned, as are an annoying amount of people on the Council. And Beauregard, you never know, you may end up liking her. We wouldn’t have even contemplated this if we thought she was a terrible person or bad for you. We’ve heard a lot about her, and I think you will like her.”

“Hold up.” Beau extends her hand in a stopping motion. “Let me process all this. You can tell me about this girl later. Tomorrow. I’m assuming that they're going to come here at some point so we can talk more? So I can meet this girl? Or are we going there?”

“They will be coming here.”

“When?”

“They’re expected to arrive in four days.”

Beau’s eyes widen. “Four… fuck.”

“We can talk more tomorrow morning after breakfast.” The Queen says and Beau nods.

“Alright. I’ll see you then.” 

Without saying goodbye, Beau turns on her heel and marches out. She can hear Fjord and Jester saying respectful goodbyes to her parents but she doesn’t slow her pace, knowing they can catch up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo! That's the first chapter of this story! This is one that I'll be working on in my spare time, when I'm not working or writing one of my three other books, but I'll be trying to post once a week! And this is a long chapter, I usually write 1,000 and this is more like 1,700! This will be a slow burn, but I'm a fluffy person so nothing should be too bad! And there will be NO character death, I'm keeping Molly! And once I get a feel for him, I'll probably add Duce (Caduceus) later! And this story will be centered around Yashregard, but if you guys have any preferences about background pairings let me know! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!


	2. Chapter 2

Fjord and Jester silently follow Beau, who makes a beeline for where her room is. Jester and Fjord exchange a worried glance. They know that this could go one of two ways. One, Beau slams the door behind her so that they’ll stand guard outside her room. Or two, where Beau storms in but leaves the door open, which means she's willing to talk but needs to be gently prodded. Option two is what they're hoping for, since option one always results in Beau attempting to sneak away and get to a tavern. Which turns into Fjord and Jester ensuring she doesn’t drink too much and embarrass herself and that the girl she drunkenly flirts with doesn’t have malicious intent.

Beau throws open her door and leaves it open. Jester and Fjord let out a relieved breath and hurry in behind her, shutting the door behind them as Beau begins to pace. Beau runs a hand through her hair frustratedly, messing up her bun slightly. She lets out a sigh, her nose twitching once to show her anger. 

“What the fuck. What the fuck!” 

“Beau, do you maybe want to talk about it? We can always sit down so you don’t wear a hole in the floor.”

Beau looks to him with a deadpan expression that sends a shiver down his spine. “I’ll stand.” She crosses her arms but stops pacing, and for the first time in a while, Fjord looks at her and can feel fear creeping up in his chest. 

He clears his throat awkwardly. “Right.”

“Beau, we get to meet your future wife soon!” Jester says, her sunny disposition allowing her to easily ignore the tension in the room.

Beau chokes on nothing as her eyes widen. “Whoa whoa whoa, I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

“I bet she's pretty,” Jester sing-songs, grinning. “I bet your parents know all kinds of things about her!”

“Which means that she probably knows enough about me to veto this immediately.” Beau deadpans. “Look, I’m not going to immediately say no. I know what this means for Dreyos, and for Efoa as a whole. I’ll listen to Mom, I’ll meet her. But no promises.”

“That’s fair,” Fjord nods. “And more than I expected. I’m proud of how far you’ve come, Beau.”

Beau just grunts. “If you two don’t mind, I would like some time alone.”

Jester nods understandingly and gives Beau a quick hug, which still makes her tense up slightly but she's more used to it by now. The first time Jester tried to hug her, Beau may have decked her.

“If you need us, Oskar and I will be right outside!” She practically skips out of the room.

“Are you ever going to tell me why she occasionally insists on calling me Oskar?” Fjord sighs.

Beau shakes her head and Fjord nods before saying a quick goodbye and leaving. She lets out a breath as he closes the door behind him and heads over to her pull up bar.

***

The next day, Beau is sore and probably looks like hell, but she can't find it within herself to give a crap. After eating what she could manage to, she goes with Fjord and Jester back to the throne room, where her parents are waiting.

“Tell me about her,” Beau says. She ignores Fjord’s nudge, already knowing that she's being rude.

“Well, not much is known about her before she became a soldier, to be honest. And it wasn’t mentioned to us when we talked with Queen Magdalen, so I would assume it’s personal. Regardless, she's one of the best fighters they have, though she usually works in small groups or alone.”

“Okay. That doesn’t tell me much.”

“I’m getting to the information part, I was giving you background.” Beau’s mother says, her discipline keeping her from showing her frustration.  
Beau nods. “So what's her name?”

“Yasha,” her father provides. His smirk tells her that he knows exactly who she is as it immediately connects in her mind who they’ve been referring to.

“Yasha?” Beau crosses her arms, trying not to be intimidated at the fact that her parents want her to marry the person near the top of the Cobalt Soul’s list of dangerous people in Thaydor. “I’ve heard of her.”

“You have?” Her mother sounds surprised and impressed. “Ah, the Cobalt Soul. Yes, it’s that Yasha. She’s a formidable warrior. And I know you have morals, so I made sure she has the same… preferences as you.”

“Sexuality,” Beau corrects her automatically. “And not every girl who likes girls has the same sexuality.”

“Right, of course.” The Queen clears her throat and then continues. “Now that I know you know of her, I’m not certain that I have any more information on her than you already do.”

Beau nods, crossing her arms. That isn’t saying much, considering Yasha has been rather illusive despite the Cobalt Soul’s many attempts to gather information. She only knows vaguely what she looks like, since the monks don’t like unnecessary risks, like getting too close to the person they're gathering intelligence on. She knows vague descriptors from people the monks have found that have crossed her path, but their answers are inconsistent and varied.

“From what little I know about her, she doesn’t exactly seem like the settling down and marrying type. And to be frank, neither am I.”

Her mother nods. “I understand that, but this is malleable. You know, my older sister Lucretia adventured with her husband when they were engaged. You could do the same. She was an adventuress at heart, and I see a lot of her in you. Hopefully, you don’t share the same… fatal flaws.”

“I would assume that were I allowed to leave this area, I would have to keep my personal guards with me at the very least.” Beau nods to Fjord and Jester. “And her guards.”

“Beauregard, your earlier mistakes have always been… understandable. But that doesn’t mean that I could allow them to go unpunished. However, it has been long enough that your punishment can be over. I still expect Fjord and Jester to be your personal guards, if you're amenable to that. And it is getting dangerous, I would prefer that if you were to go adventuring, it would be with a larger party than just the three of you. And you may not leave before Queen Magdalen and Yasha come here. If everything goes well, perhaps we could announce your engagement and you could bring her and anyone she requests while you travel.”

“Alright, I guess.” Beau lets out a short breath and shifts her weight. “That’s assuming a lot of things, including that I’ll like her, and she’ll like me enough for us both to be willing to be engaged.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have another slightly longer chapter! And this was a lot of dialogue and slowly wading through plot, but I think that next chapter (assuming I don't have a brilliant idea that disrupts this) we'll see Yasha come in! Now you guys know a bit more about Fjord and Jester too, that they're Beau's personal guards ;) And I'll try to stay relatively within their character backstories, as much as I can with my alterations haha. And yeah, my plan is for them to eventually start adventuring together, and the others will be appearing soon-ish as well! Again, feel free to let me know if any dialogue or anything feels out of character or what other ships aside from Yashregard you want, I'm open to suggestions! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	3. Chapter 3

The Queen sits back on her throne after her daughter and her personal guards leave, letting out a breath. She rests an elbow on the arm of her throne and leans to one side, her lips brushing against her propped-up hand. 

“We’re doing the right thing. Right, Horace?” She looks to her husband with furrowed brows.

“Beauregard wouldn’t agree if she didn’t know it was the right thing, Geila.” He lets out a breath and sits next to her on his own chair, much less magnificent and ornate than hers. “Though I'm not certain about her traveling. I see much of Lucretia in her as well. Beauregard is headstrong enough to rival her and I fear she’ll run towards danger without regard for her own safety.”

“We can't keep her from seeing the world. We have to let her experience Dreyos and Thaydor, to see the continent. She needs to see our people to learn how to better lead them in the future. And she may be headstrong, but Beauregard is smart. She will have, at the very least, Fjord and Jester to balance her out, if not more people. She’ll be okay.” Queen Geila says, using her years of training and years of experience as being Queen to infuse confidence into her tone. “She has to be.”

***

The day swiftly comes when Queen Magdalena and Yasha are supposed to arrive and the castle gets busier as the day nears with preparations for a royal arrival.   
Beau can feel her nervousness increase as it gets closer and closer, ramping up her training with Fjord and Jester, pushing her body further with every day until she collapses with exhaustion on her bed that last night. 

Jester quietly walks in after her and sighs at her friend, already snoring softly. She helps Beau out of her boots and socks. Jester presses a hand against Beau’s sweaty back and murmurs a quick incantation, feeling her healing magic warm her hand briefly. Beau’s breathing evens out, no longer quick and labored from working herself so hard. She pats her affectionately and whispers a soft “goodnight” before walking out to where Fjord is waiting outside.

Fjord nods to the guard who is assigned to be outside Beau's bedroom door for the night and then leads Jester to their room next to Beau's. 

“I’ve never seen her like that,” Jester says softly as she holds open the door for Fjord.

“Neither have I. I guess this was her way of dealing with all that stress she's been carrying around. It should be over soon, they're arriving tomorrow.” Fjord gives her a smile he hopes is comforting. 

***

A woman sits regally on a chair made of fine metals with designs carved with such fine detail it almost looks like it must have been magic that made such intricacies. Her face is a natural deep brown, a few shades darker than Beau's skin. Her chiseled features and strong jaw are framed by wavy hair that falls perfectly in place, the end at her jaw. She has warm brown eyes but there's a steel to them that leaves no doubt of her intellect or compassion. She is lithe but there is strength to her form, and an inherent grace to every movement. The dress she wears is gold in color with black detail, the hem brushing her ankles. There is a slit that goes up to her knee, showing off beautiful skin whenever she moves. Sitting atop her head is a simple crown that’s rarely worn but looks like it belongs there. It’s silver in color and slopes lazily upward to a single point, in which a blue sapphire inlaid. She looks like a regal goddess sitting atop her throne, but this is no god. This is Queen Geila.

Sitting next to her is a thicker man with a stern impression. His skin is fairer, a few shades lighter than his daughter’s. His hair is short and black, the end onto a few inches from his head. He has a piercing gaze that seems to look into the soul. His arms are lightly crossed in front of him. He wears a long-sleeved tan button-up that looks immaculate, no matter how much he shifts impatiently, that are tucked into black pants. 

Pacing in front of them is their daughter Beauregard, who despite her father’s protests and best efforts, wears her usual blue robes. Jester stands nearby, happily pulling a donut from a pocket of her favorite dress and offering it to Fjord, who smiles and shakes his head at her. He's wearing his usual armor, but he cleaned them to the best of his ability. 

The door opens behind them and Beau freezes in her pacing, her arms behind her back. She spins and watches as a woman enters.

The first woman cannot be Yasha. This woman has tan skin from years of exposure to the sun and wiry but strong arms from years of hard labor. She has dark brown hair pulled back into an intricate braid, showing off her beautiful features. She wears a kind smile that shows the wrinkles on her face. She has a nose that’s pointed but slightly crooked like it’s been broken before. She's about a head shorter than Beau and she strides in with confidence. She wears a nicer red button-up with short sleeves that show off her tattooed arms. She has it tucked into dark gray pants.

Just as Beau is about to look closer at this woman she realizes has to be Queen Magdalen, another woman walks in and Beau's mind screeches to a halt. 

Yasha is tall, taller than pretty much anyone Beau has ever met. More than that, she's muscular. Which honestly, Beau was expecting. She just wasn’t expecting her to have biceps that rival the size of Beau's head. Her skin is remarkably pale, a stark contrast to the slightly tattered black clothes she wears. Her hair is long, falling past her shoulders. It’s black, fading to white, almost reminiscent of the contrast between her skin and clothing. It looks almost matted, and there are braids woven into it as well. It’s utter chaos, but it works. Her eyes meet Beau's and her heart skips a beat. One of her eyes is a greenish-blue while the other is violet. And to top it all off, she has a tattoo, just a line that starts on her lower lip down to her chin until it vanishes. Her ears are pierced in multiple places.  
Beau never thought that she might have a type. But with this, she's reconsidering because she's checking every box that Beau never knew she wanted.

She can hear the Queens talking in the background, but she's only focused on the woman in front of her, because holy shit. Beau tries to find some of her cool and shamelessly checks her out, noticing that Yasha is doing the same, just a bit shier than Beau is. She tries to think of something cool to say, but the only thing rushing through her mind is “Fuck, I’m so gay” over and over. 

“Beau,” Jester whispers pointedly. “Introduce yourself.”

“Right, uh. Sup? I’m Beau.”

Beau hears a familiar soft slapping sound of Fjord face palming behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed me actually describing major characters lol. And I hope you enjoyed Beau drooling over Yasha as much as I did! I love my Disaster Lesbian, she's such a mood Maybe next chapter will be from Yasha's POV? We'll see how it works out... And guys, I'm addicted to Pillars of Eternity 2 now and I'm flirting so hard with Marisha's character... Whenever she speaks I swear I like swoon, I love the character and I love her. Anywho! Thank you all for reading and for your wonderful comments! Stay awesome!


	4. Chapter 4

There's a long moment of silence, like no one can quite believe that those are Beau's first words to a woman that she has been arranged to possibly marry.

The silence breaks when a purple tiefling, dwarfed by Yasha's size, steps out from behind her. Their deeper, raspy voice fills the throne room with raucous laughter that almost resembles a crow's cry.

Yasha blinks, studying the woman she's been set up with. There's a strength to her that has nothing to do with the fact that she just said all that to someone she doesn't know, let alone someone she might marry. Her limbs are wiry but well-muscled in a way that Yasha knows means they're meant for use, not for show like some of the people she has fought alongside. There's a cockiness to her in general, but Yasha's been around Molly enough to know that it often isn't all there is to see about a person.

"Hello. I'm Yasha."

There's a long, drawn out sigh as the Queen of Dreyos nearly seems to slump slightly in place where she had been talking politely to the Queen of Thaydor, mostly small talk while they watch their daughters interact.

“Beauregard, you said you would-” 

“Be on my best behavior, and I have been.” Beau says, sounding slightly annoyed but it’s heavily overshadowed by her husky, deeper voice that makes it seem like she constantly is almost bored unless she forces emotion into her tone. “No swearing, no innuendos, I’ve been good. You know I get thrown by pretty faces.”

Beau's mom purses her lips and it seems like she's about to say more, but the half-orc accompanying Beau that had face palmed at her words steps forward.

“Forgive me if I’m overstepping, Your Highness, but I think this may be a good time for them to get acquainted. We can leave our esteemed monarchs to their business while we entertain the guests.” He says and Yasha blinks at him, not having expected the drawl of his accent to come from him.

“Very well,” Queen Geila says after a tense moment. “Beau.”

Beau’s head turns, and she meets her mother’s gaze and Yasha watches as they seem to have a silent conversation that seems to sour Beau’s mood slightly. 

“I know. No promises.” 

Yasha can see Molly turn their head to the side slightly, eyeing the woman she may marry. Beau gestures for them and for her two companions to follow her and Yasha can already tell that her and Molly’s personalities are going to clash, but as long as she's not terrible, Molly will hopefully grow to like her. Maybe.

Beau leads them through the twisting halls of the castle and Yasha automatically memorizes where she's been to learn the layout. Beau knocks on a nondescript door and Molly opens their mouth, their red eyes narrowed, but Beau shushes them. 

The door swings open to reveal a gnome with braided brown hair and dark skin with surprisingly ruddy cheeks and a wide smile that crinkles the corner of her eyes.

“Beauregard! I wondered when you would come and visit me again.” She cleans her hands on a rag and smiles up at her.

“You know I can't stay away for long, Casy.” Beau winks and Yasha cocks her head slightly, wondering if Beau’s heart has already been taken. “You’re the best cook in the castle.” Or perhaps just her stomach.

“Damn straight!” Casy says proudly.

“There's nothing straight about either of us,” Beau says with a lazy smirk. She high fives one of the few people she can stand in the castle, having to lower her hand in order to do it. “But I'm not here for one of our chats.”

Casy’s eyes move away from Beau and immediately fall upon Yasha and Molly. Molly sticks out their hand, palm up. 

“Mollymauk Tealeaf. Charmed.”

“You certainly are.” Casy’s eyes glint with something akin to mischief. She seems confused about the hand but extends hers anyway, blushing when Molly takes it delicately and presses a kiss to it. “Now, why don’t you lovely people go sit in Beau’s dining room and I’ll bring you all food in just a bit!”

“Thanks, Cas.”

Cas winks at Beau and then shuts the door, the sound of orders being flung and the clanging of pots filtering out to the hallway.

“It’s just the next door on the right.” Beau says, pushing open another nondescript door and holding it for everyone, meeting Yasha's eyes as she walks past.

“I have a question. Well, I have many, but this is the most interesting one right now.” Molly says as they sit down, leaning back in their chair so that they can stick their legs up on the small yet fancy, intricately carved table. The half-orc seems like he wants to say something, but the blue tiefling shakes her head at him. “Why do you have your own dining room? Seems a little ostentatious.”

“Your entire being is ostentatious.” Beau says, nonplussed by Molly’s question. 

She holds out a chair for Yasha, who feels her cheeks pinken slightly as she thanks Beau and sits down. Beau sits down next to Yasha and meets Molly’s gaze and smirk. 

“That’s fair.” They shrug. “But I am curious.”

“You may have noticed, but I’m not exactly as proper and boring as a lot of the nobles here are. My father, when he realized this, got worried that I would fuck with one of the stuffy people they invite to dinner, so he had me eat in this room whenever nobles were over. And I mean, he wasn’t wrong. I definitely would have messed with them. After a while, Cas jokingly called it Beau’s dining room and the name kind of stuck.”

Molly squints at her like they're trying to figure out a complicated problem. Their eyes flicker over to the half-orc and tiefling and their lips stretch into a warm, charismatic smile. 

“And what are your names? I don’t believe we have been introduced yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, an actual chapter? Wild, right? Sorry about the LONG delay guys, I've been working a lot and in between I've been rushing to get ready to move back into a dorm... Which I did yesterday, so life should be slowing down a bit now! As I still am writing three other stories right now, my main hope for this story is to be updated at least every week! At least until I actually manage to finish a story haha. Thank you for your patience, and next chapter we'll get more into group reactions, and I'll try to have Beau and Yasha have more awkward conversations! Feel free to let me know if something seems weird/out of character! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	5. Chapter 5

Molly looks at Jester and Fjord with a charismatic smile. "And what are your names? I don't believe we have been introduced yet."

"Oh, I'm Jester and this is Fjord! It's nice to meet you." She reaches out and happily shakes Molly's hand.

"It's nice to meet you as well. How did you come to be... Friends with the princess here?"

"Call me a princess again." Beau grumbles, giving them a threatening look that they completely ignore.

"Oh, we're super strong, so when we heard Queen Geila was looking for bodyguards, we offered to to it. It was crazy, though." Jester leans forward, her eyes wide as she tells the study. "They had us all train in an arena together, and Fjord and I obviously were amazing."

Molly looks Fjord up and down and grins. "Of course."

Fjord's cheeks turn a slightly darker green and he awkwardly scratches the back of his neck. "More like we worked together since the beginning. The others took a while longer to figure out it would be advantageous to have allies."

"Still impressive," Molly says.

"That's why we were hired." Jester leans back so the chair is resting on its back two legs. Fjord looks like he wants to say something but restrains himself with a grimace. "Beau didn't like us at first, though."

Beau sighs softly, knowing that if she's going to be able to talk to Yasha, it's probably not going to be around their talkative guards. She can always request that later once they're finished with their introductions.

Molly leans forward, resting their elbows on the table and smiling wide enough to show off bright white teeth. "Really?"

"Really really." Jester nods seriously.

"You guys were hired to be glorified babysitters to keep me out of trouble. Of course I didn't like you at first."

"I feel like that wouldn't be an issue if you don't go looking for trouble." Molly says and Beau decides not to dignify that with a response.

"Technically Beau, your mom hired us to be your personal guards. Technically. And you know you like us now." Her voice gets slightly higher pitched as she grins and nudges Beau.

"You're a lot less crappy than a lot of the people that tried out."

Jester raises her fists to her mouth and lets out a happy squeaking noise. "That's a really nice compliment from Beau," she explains to Molly and Yasha.

"Hey, I can compliment people. It just doesn't come off right sometimes."

"You are a bit abrasive." Molly admits.

Beau flips them off, the movement so quick it almost seems like an automatic reaction. Molly doesn't look insulted in the least, instead laughing heartily at her.

"Besides, we've known each other for a while. You know what I mean." Beau says.

"I do, Beau." Jester gives her the wide beaming smile that Beau has only ever seen her do. "You like us."

As if on cue to save Beau from having to say something, Casy comes through the door carrying a few trays of food with some of her workers scurrying in behind her with more. They pass the food out and the five of them thank Casy and begin to eat.

Afterwards, Jester and Fjord show Molly and Yasha around the castle. Beau interjects with information occasionally, but for the most part she walks next to Yasha, who's about as quiet a person as she expected.

"Hey Yasha," Beau says.

She times it for when Molly's listening intently to Jester's dramatic retelling of that one time an assassin found them. Yasha turns to her and Beau silently curses herself for the way her heart feel like it skips a beat when Yasha's dichromatic eyes are focused on her.

"Sometime later would you be down to talking with me? Without the three amigos over there?"

"Yeah, sure." Yasha says and it's almost surprising again to hear how her voice is so soft when she looks so intimidating. "After dinner?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that works." Beau nods.

She tunes back into Jester's story in an attempt to ignore the her that's warming her cheeks just from Yasha talking to her. It doesn't help much, but if does give her something to focus on.

"-And then Beau punches the guy in the face! Fjord and I were still scooting around, trying to find him, when he snuck up on her, but Beau wasn't worried at all!"

Molly hums and glances back at where Beau's walking behind them next to Yasha. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me that you know how to throw a punch."

"My parents..." Beau trails off for a moment, trying to figure out a way to word this. "They made sure that I learned how to defend myself and made sure I was taught by the best teachers around." Beat clears her throat and looks to Jester and Fjord. "So, uh. What all do we have left to show them?"

"Just the library," Fjord answers. "You'll probably be able to meet the apprentice wizard and his friend, that's usually where they stay."

"Don't forget the training areas!" Jester pipes in.

"That's not on castle grounds, that's on the Cobalt Soul's property," Beau reminds her.

Jester nods. "Yes, but we're allowed to train there whenever!"

Beau sighs. "Okay. If we still have enough time after the library and you two are up for it." She nods to Yasha and Molly. "We can show you where we train as well. If not, we can always do that tomorrow or another time."

"Sounds good to me. Yash?" Molly looks to her.

"Yeah. I haven't had as much time as I would like to train while we've been on the road."

Fjord hums in understanding. "Alright. To the library first, and then the training area. We should have enough time to train a bit. Do you both have your weapons on you, or should we make another stop to get them?"

Molly reaches up and pats his face, their lips stretching into a wide smile. "Darling, we don't go anywhere unarmed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how Beau and Yasha's first interaction alone is going to be, so that'll certainly be interesting... And I'll roll for them training, which is always fun! And guys,, those pets they bought are going to get killed and use up all those diamonds they got lol I'm so anxious about how they're going to possibly survive, like Frumpkin can poof back,,, Anywho! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	6. Chapter 6

"Darling, we don't go anywhere unarmed."

They nod to the large greatsword strapped to Yasha's back and pats at their own hips, where they have two ostentatious swords.

Beau tries to pretend that the fact that Yasha can wield a sword that's almost as tall as Beau definitely isn't turning her on a little bit. She eyes the wicked looking blade for a moment longer while they head towards the library. It's sharpened to perfection but shows some minimal signs of wear.

Unsurprisingly, Caleb is sitting at his usual table with a tall stack of books next to him. He has his notes spread out around him and he reads rapidly, his eyes flitting across the pages so quickly that if Beau didn't know any better, she would think he was either bullshitting or trying to show off.

Beau walks over and sits down on the opposite side of the table that Caleb's at. It's only now from this angle that she can see Nott sitting next to him, obscured by the stack of books. Caleb starts slightly when she sits down, and he sets down the book he was reading, blinking a couple times before meeting her gaze.

"Hallo," he greets her softly.

"Hey. Do you know what's been going on around here?" Caleb just looks at her for a moment. "Right. Stupid question, of course you do. Well Fjord, Jester, and I have been showing Yasha and her..." Beau's eyebrows scrunch as she gestures to Molly. "Her bodyguard or something, Molly."

Yasha nods in greeting while Molly grins. "Mollymauk Tealeaf, at your service. And what might your name be?"

"I ah, I am Caleb Widogast, and I am apprentice wizard here."

Nott pokes her head out, her mask on and her hood up. Even after knowing her for a while, the mask still kind of creeps Beau out.

"Hello," she says in her shrill voice. "I'm Nott the Brave."

"It's nice to meet you," Yasha says.

Nott's yellow eyes widen as she looks at her. "Oh. You're really big."

There's a small smile on Yasha's face. "And you're very small."

Nott tugs at her good, shyly looking away from the late woman that's easily two feet taller than her. Her other hand reaches for the crudely done pocket she stitched herself where she keeps her emergency flash. Her regular flask is farther away than she's willing to go when she feels this jittery.

"Hey Caleb," Beau says. It gives Nott the perfect opportunity to stealthily drink from her flask. "How about you spout off some interesting shit about the library? Emphasis in the interesting."

"Oh, of course."

He nods and stands, showing them around the library and talking about the variety of books they have. Nott follows Caleb around like a shadow, silent and nervously eyeing the new people (mostly Yasha's intimidating form) but not talking directly to the again. Beau doesn't find it interesting, as she has issues sitting still and focusing for long enough to get through most books. If Yasha didn't look so interested in what Caleb's saying, Beau would make an excuse for them to make a quick exit.

"You're both lovely people; thank you for showing us the library." Molly says with a warm grin. "Would you care to join us for the rest if our tour? We're on our last legs and heading to the training grounds."

"I, ah. I have a lot of work to do." Caleb gestures to the stack of books on the table. "Perhaps another time. Jah." He nods to himself.

Molly shrugs and continues to grin at him. "Commendable. If you change your mind or want to get some fresh air while you work, you know where we'll be." They wink and Caleb pinkens slightly.

"I will... Consider it. Danke."

After they say a quick goodbye to their shy friends, Jester eagerly leads everyone to the Cobalt Soul's training area. Once it became clear to the Cobalt Soul that Beau was going to be consistently using a training area is theirs, they had the one she had been using blocked off from the others using nearly trimmed bushes. She did that after glaring at one too many new monks who got too close to her like they were about to ask her a question.

"Who wants to train first?" Fjord asks.

"Honestly, I'd like to see what Beau can do." Molly looks at her and she can see the mistrust in their red eyes.

"Ooh, do you want to train with her?" Jester asks, her eyes bright with excitement.

"I think that violence in controlled environments is a great way to get to know somebody," Molly answers. "Honeatly, I think Yasha and Beau should train together."

"I'm down. You in?" Beau asks Yasha, who nods in response. "Dope. Friendly fighting or no holding back?"

Yasha purses her lips slightly as she thinks. "What will you be using to train with?"

"My bo." Beau glares when Molly snorts in amusement before returning her attention to Yasha. "Don't worry about hurting me. I know you can control your swings, and I'm pretty good at dodging."

Yasha nods but Beau can tell there's still some concern in her eyes. "I would like to see what you can do as well. If it gets too rough, then we can switch to friendly training."

Beau can't help her grin, which Fjord has said resembles more of a smirk. "Cool. Let's do it."

She hops over the small divide that separates the training area from the viewing area. She spins her bo in her hand and gestures for Yasha to join her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter than normal, but I figured I would stop before the real action starts ;) After training, we'll get to more plot points AND Yasha and Beau actually talking lol. And wow I just am updating my weekly calendar for the school year and I'm even busier than last year? Somehow? Rip me... Especially if my friends and I start a D&D campaign too! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	7. Chapter 7

Beau and Yasha stand near each other on the dusty ground of the training ground, both taking a moment to focus on the impending training session before Jester gets impatient and shouts, "Fight!"

Beau moves a split second before Yasha does with a quick shout. She's trying to focus on Yasha and trying not to focus on other things, like Yasha's arms, and how they flex and bulge as she gets an intense look in her eyes. Beau fails at first, the first punch she throws going wide and ending up getting easily blocked when Yasha adjusts her grip on the sword.

Beau swears under her breath and brings her right leg up, snapping it out in a round kick that goes past Yasha's defenses. It catches her in the hip and her eyes widen slightly in surprise as the impact causes her leg to momentarily buckle. A small grin lights up Yasha's face as her fingers flex around her longsword.

Yasha lunges forward, her teeth gritting together as she swings her sword towards Beau. Beau's eyes widen, and she steps out of the way, causing the longsword to instead hit the ground beside her. Dust gets kicked up from the impact and some of it gets in Beau's eyes and mouth. Her nose wrinkles as she spits it out, hating the gritty feeling in her mouth. Her eyes widen as dust parts with the force of Yasha's blade as she swings directly towards her. Beau notices its trajectory too late and can't move out of the way. The blade slows quickly when it gets close to hitting Beau until it just taps her with the sharp side. Beau can feel that it broke skin, which is probably just because Yasha keeps it so sharp. Blood wells up and she grins at the sting. She's forgotten how fun it is to train with someone new.

Beau pulls out her bo, twirling it automatically, something she always does when she pulls it out so she can get reacquainted with the feel of it. She snaps one side forward and it catches Yasha in the gut. Yasha lets out a huff of surprise as it hits her. Beau swings with her fist, still holding the bo, but as soon as it hits Yasha she can tell it was a weak attempt. Yasha doesn't even flinch or seem impacted at all.

Yasha sweeps with her sword, nearly hitting Beau's legs but she reacts just in time, getting her bo down to counteract it. Yasha swings her sword back, her eyes expertly assessing Beau as she moves her bo and gets back into a ready stance. With a loud huff that almost sounds like a growl, Yasha swings her longsword again. Beau steps forward and ducks in an attempt to dodge, but she realizes a moment too late that it puts her directly in the path of the hilt.

It smacks her in the side of the head and Beau's head snaps to the side from the impact. Beau lets out a low groaning sound and Yasha's grip loosens on her sword as she reaches out. She hesitates for a moment and then drops her hand.

"Are you alright?" Yasha asks as Beau gingerly presses a hand to the side of her head.

Beau pulls her hand back and grimaces when she sees a bit of blood on it. "I'm okay."

She blinks, pressing her eyes closed harder than normal and opening them slightly wider in an attempt to snap herself out of the haze caused by the consistent pounding of her head. She blinks again and gets back into a ready stance, but Yasha can tell that it's shakier than before.

Yasha wants to stop the fight for fear of worsening the damage she's caused to Beau's head, but she can tell that Beau isn't the type of person who would even want to stop training until it ends naturally or unless her injury gets worse. Yasha lets out a short breath and watches as Beau throws another punch. Unlike her previous ones, this one is sloppy and misses hitting Yasha by a good couple inches.

Yasha frowns and is about to suggest a break, unsure if Beau will stop it herself or if she'll try to keep going.

Beau grits her teeth and uses her bo instead of her fist. It hits Yasha in the gut and Yasha hums under her breath, impressed once again. She knows that if they weren't training and if Beau was actually trying to harm her, that could easily do some real damage.

Yasha takes the opportunity while Beau is extended and open to bring her blade towards her. Beau tries to get her bo up to block it but the blade goes past it. Yasha eases up so it just lightly taps Beau's upper arm. She uses the closeness to her advantage and attacks again, swinging low. Beau is just a moment too slow again to block it and Yasha slows her swing so it just taps her loose pants.

Yasha steps back and lets out a breath, her body used to more physical activity so she's not winded but she can feel the thin sheen of sweat on her bare arms as she puts her longsword back in its holster. Beau seems confused at first at how Yasha suddenly stopped the training session, but accepts it after a second.

Beau puts her bo away and extends her hand to Yasha with a cocky grin. Yasha hesitantly complies and takes Beau's hand. Beau shakes it and pulls back, running a hand through her sweaty hair.

"Nice. You're as good as I've heard," Beau says.

"Um. Thanks." Yasha replies, a bit unsure how to answer that.

Yasha leans closer to Beau, inspecting the spot where she hit her with the hilt, frowning. Beau's eyes widen as she leans in, having to tell her Disaster Lesbian heart that Yasha's not leaning in to kiss her. Yasha looks guiltily at how the short hair there is slick with a bit of blood.

"I'm sorry about that."

"What?" Beau has to focus herself for a moment, her mind not processing Yasha's words for a second. "Oh, right. I'm fine. Jester can heal me up. If she wants to, that is." Beau looks over to where Jester's watching with a fond amusement on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you guys know the kind of nerd I am, I went through my dice and picked out one for every character that goes with their personality and stuff. If you're curious, I can post a picture somewhere! And it was kind of funny, because Beau rolled a natural one RIGHT after Yasha rolled a natural twenty! After this, I think I'll have Beau and Yasha have their awkward first real conversation! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	8. Chapter 8

Beau walks over to where Jester is watching with Yasha trailing slightly behind her. Well, perhaps she's been half-watching, as she's currently engrossed in a conversation with Molly. As soon as Beau gets close, she can tell that her friend is in the midst of talking about one of her old exploits of running away to a bar and finding solace with a woman whose name she didn't bother to learn.

"Jester," Beau sighs exasperatedly.

Molly looks to be one of the people closest to this gorgeous woman that she definitely isn't crushing on, and she's already pretty sure that they don't really like her all that much. She doesn't need them to have any more ammunition against her.

Jester perks up and grins at Beau. "Beau! Yasha hit you pretty hard!"

Beau holds up her hand that still has some blood, albeit dried now, on it. "I'm aware," Beau deadpans.

"Don't worry, I'm a healer." Jester says proudly, mainly to Yasha and Molly. She wiggles her fingers in front of Beau's face with a big, goofy smile. "Leedle leedle leedle."

Beau feels the pulsating pain in her head fade and she just looks at Jester with a 'really?' expression. "That's what you chose to say to heal me?"

"Pretty cool, right?"

Beau shakes her head at her friend and a small smile creeps up on her face. "Sure."

Molly clears their throat. "I don't mean to interrupt, but we do have dinner with some fairly important people tonight. I would like to have time to get ready."

Fjord nods in understanding. "Of course. We should be getting ready as well. We can walk you to your room, if you'd like."

"That would be wonderful, thank you." They trail their fingers down Fjord exposed bicep and begin to stride back towards the castle.

Fjord's face is slightly greener than usual and he clears his throat awkwardly before following Molly, all the while getting teased by a mischievous-looking Jester. Beau follows them with Yasha beside her.

"Yasha. Do you want to talk now or after dinner?" Beau asks as they walk.

"Now."

"Alright. Your room or my room?"

"Uh, mine." Yasha nods to herself after making the decision.

"Okay," Beau murmurs.

They walk in silence next to each other, listening to Molly and Jester talk. They've gotten along famously, and a small smile lights up Yasha's face as she watches her best friend make another friend.

They drop Molly off first, and they smirk at Yasha when they notice that she's not joining them. Usually, she turns to their expertise to make her presentable for dinners like this. She knows that they can tell she's going to be doing something with Beau. But knowing them, what they're imagining will be a lot different than what will actually happen.

Beau steps away from Yasha to murmur to Jester, telling her that they're going to talk in Yasha's room. Jester's eyes get that sparkle in them that means trouble.

"Don't say anything, Jester." Beau says, her face much more serious than it usually is when she talks to her tiefling friend.

Jester notices, and nods. But that doesn't stop her from wiggling her eyebrows at Beau before flouncing away with Fjord.

"This way. It's close to Molly's." Beau says.

She can feel her nervousness bubble up. Which is never a good thing, especially when a pretty girl is involved. One she might marry.

Beau holds open the door to the nice bedroom that her parents have had made up for Yasha. She fiddles with her jade bracelet while Yasha silently walks around the room, taking everything in. It's one of their most luxurious guest rooms, usually reserved for a King or Queen when they come, but with Yasha being so important with the purpose of this entire trip, they gave it to her instead and moved her adoptive parents to the other Queen/King suite.

Yasha's trailing a finger over the dresser when Beau speaks up, not wanting to stay in silence that feels awkward. She paces back and forth as she talks, but for the most part she maintains eye contact with Yasha.

"I know we have a lot to talk about, and I jut want to get it all out on the table. This is a big decision that we have to make, one that won't just affect the rest of our lives but our countries and our people as well. I want us to be able to make a decision with all the cards on the table. To do that, I think we need to reintroduce ourselves. Or at least I do." She waits for Yasha to nod before she continues. "Hey. I'm Beau, which is short for Beauregard. I'm the Princess of Dreyos, but I really hate being called princess. I grew up here in this castle and got into trouble a lot, especially when I was older. Once my parents had enough, I was taken in by the Cobalt Soul, where they taught me how to punch shit. I ran away from them and came back here a year or so ago. And now this is happening."

Yasha nods again. "You fight well." She pauses for a moment, looking at the floor off to the side while her eyebrows scrunch, thinking. "I'm... I'm not certain that I'm ready to disclose too much of my history."

"No worries, that's perfectly fine." Beau practically rushes to say. She understands that completely.

"As you're aware, I'm Yasha. I've been fighting for a long time, and I enjoy being a soldier, and traveling. I worship the Stormlord. Um." She purses her lips and then shrugs. "Yeah."

"Cool, okay. Um. Heavy stuff now if you're down." Beau waits again for Yasha to nod before she continues. "So, uh. I always expected that I would meet an awesome girl, fall in love, and then get married. I never thought it would be arranged. But I know how important this is for our people and shit, and you seem pretty cool. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm open to the idea. I think we could have a lot of fun together as partners, but I would never want you to feel forced or whatever."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a hard chapter to write with character voices sounding right... Let me know if anything seems funky! And guys, this year in college basically is jut me chasing my tail... So once a week updates are the goal! If I'm really on top of it it'll be like once every four days, but I don't expect that to happen... Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	9. Chapter 9

Beau waits with bated breath for Yasha's response. There's a long moment where Yasha studies her and Beau forces herself not to get defensive or anything, or squirm away from her proving gaze.

"I think... I think I would like to spend more time with you before we agree to such a life-altering decision." Yasha says in her soft voice. "I didn't think this was going to be where I ended up either. And while you seem like a nice person, I do want a little more time. Before declaring anything."

Beau nods, trying not to nod too fast and look like a bobble head. "Yeah, yeah. I totally agree, and I think our parents will be cool with that. Er, um. Is it cool for me to call them your parents?"

"Yes."

Beau blinks, used to Jester's rambling explanations and her bringing out Fjord's own shy/embarrassed rambling. The one word answer is direct and to the point, and Beau has to admit she enjoys the change of pace. She enjoys it more than she expected.

"Right. Okay. So uh, we should just wait and see if our opinions change, or if we change our minds? Because you can definitely do that, you seem like an awesome woman and anyone would be lucky to marry you, and I don't want to hold you back or tie you down and-"

"Beau." Yasha says, a small smile playing on her lips. Beau shuts her mouth with a slightly audible click. "Thank you. And yes, I want us both to be certain we are okay with this, but I want you to know that if I choose this, you will not be holding me back at all. You're not the only one who thinks the other is an amazing woman."

Beau tries to ignore her blush and the pink flooding Yasha's cheeks. "Um. Cool. Thanks. I'm just going to..." Beau hikes her thumb over her shoulder.

Yasha nods. "Right. I'll see you at dinner."

"Yup. See you!"

And with that, Beau walks coolly out while panicking internally.

Once she's in the hallway, she walks almost absentmindedly to her room and closes the door before promptly freaking out.

After incomprehensible gibberish intermixed with "what"s and quite a few curse words, Beau has her face in her hands and is breathing deeply. She focuses on her breath, counting along with it, a technique one of her few exes that stayed around for longer than a week taught her.

Beau leans her head back against a wall and lets out a deep breath before shaking her head. She groans softly and then makes herself focus on getting ready. Usually she would just adjust her clothing, check for running makeup, and look for visible stains, but today she needs to do more. She's eating with people other than just Jester and Fjord, after all.

While she's reapplying her makeup, there's a knock at her door.

"Come in," she says, not taking her eyes off herself in the mirror.

"Beau!" A familiar lilted voice says. "You're doing your makeup without me?"

"Yeah, I wasn't sure when you were going to be done with yours."

Jester opens her mouth to reply but then shrugs. "That's fair. Will you let me help now?"

Jester looks at her with wide, excited eyes, and Beau has a hard time saying no to pretty girls, especially when said pretty girl is her best friend. Beau nods and a small smile lights up her face as Jester squeals happily and claps. She skips over to Beau and gleefully begins to do (and redo some) of Beau's makeup.

"Ooh, Beau! Are you going to do anything special with your hair?"

"Yeah, I'm going to throw it back into a ponytail."

Jester pouts at her friend in the mirror. "But Beau, that's what you always do!"

"Yeah."

Jester pouts and tries to convince Beau for another couple minutes, up until Fjord comes in.

"Guys, it's almost time for the dinner. You ready?" He asks.

Beau glances up to Jester, who nods. "Yup, we're done! Doesn't she look great!"

"Yeah." Beau glowers at him, as if daring him to compliment her. "Um. Certainly more ah, put together than usual."

"Thanks man."

With that, the three friends walk to the dining hall, where Beau's parents entertain their most wealthy and influential guests. When the guards open the doors, Beau sees that everyone else aside from Molly and Yasha have arrived.

"Welcome, welcome." Beau's mom says, pressing her hands together and giving them an inviting smile. "Please, sit! Yasha and Mollymauk should be here at any moment."

Only a few moments later, the doors open again and Molly steps in with Yasha behind them, their lips tight against their pointed teeth in a wide smile.

"My apologies, I wanted to look my best." They bow and Queen Geila waves them off.

"You're perfectly fine, you're right on time! Take a seat, please!"

Yasha sits in the seat next to Beau, and Molly takes the one between Yasha and Fjord. They wink at the half-orc before gracefully taking their seat.

The queens and their husbands make most of the small talk, most of it just a polite exchanging of words. That is, until they get into the state of the countries and the continent as a whole. Beau tries to pay attention, but they're not really talking about anything interesting. She does notice an underlying tension, though. It isn't quite between the two royal families, but almost a general state of alarm like they're expecting something to happen at any minute.

Beau refocuses on her food, sneaking an occasional glance at Yasha, who is eating and paying attention to the conversation.

Beau is about to make an excuse to leave when the door opens unexpectedly and she jolts to attention. A scraggly thin man rushes in, his pale face red with exertion as he pants.

"Roric, what is the meaning for this interruption?" Queen Geila asks in a dangerous tone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo! We're getting to the fun stuff! And soon, we get to the adventure ;) I hope you guys enjoyed Yasha and Beau's awkward talk! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	10. Chapter 10

"Roric, what is the meaning for this interruption?"

"Apologies, Your Majesty. I wouldn't interrupt if this weren't important, or if it were information only you need to know." He says as he breathes out heavily.

Queen Geila's lips tighten briefly in displeasure but she nods. "Proceed."

"Yes ma'am." He rubs his face. "It's getting worse. We have reports of some kinds of frog creatures attacking a small farming community on the outskirts of the city. They've been driven off by the Mirguard. There were heavy casualties on our side and theirs, mostly because they caught us by surprise and they outnumbered the Mirguard stationed there. They've been driven away, but the Watchmaster worries that they'll come back with more, as they were successful in stealing food and other items."

"Have Widogast start researching these creatures. We need to know more about them," Queen Geila says. "And double the amount of Mirguard stationed there. Maybe that will deter them."

"Mo-ma'am," Beau corrects herself, knowing her mother hates being called mom when she's in Full Queen Mode like this. "Caleb's genius-level smart. He might be able to tell us something right now that could help with us making decisions."

Queen Geila nods and looks to Roric. "Go get Mr. Widogast."

Roric bows lowly to her and then rushes off.

"I apologize for the interruption." Queen Geila says with a smile that gives away to only those that are perceptive that she's annoyed. She turns. "Set two more places."

The server standing nearby, a new hire but good at their job. They nod and quickly start their task.

Beau continues eating and after a moment, a few others follow her example. They wait, and it's after the two places have been set for Caleb and Nott (even the Queen knows how inseparable they are) that they arrive with an out of breath Roric.

"Ah. Hallo." Caleb says, raising a hand in a half-hearted wave. "I was told you had need for me, My Lady?"

"Yes. Please come, sit down, eat." Queen Geila gestures to the chair.

"And...?" He gestures to what looks just like his pant leg until Beau sees the big yellow eyes peek around it.

"She's welcome to sit and eat as well, of course."

"Danke." He bows his head to her and walks over to the table with Nott scurrying behind him.

They begin to eat as they wait for Queen Geila to speak again. Nott eats extremely slowly, taking her time using unfamiliar utensils to cut and eat the food. She had let it slip to Caleb that she eats so slowly when she's invited to eat with royalty because "you can't eat like a Goblin in front of a Queen."

"Mr. Widogast. Roric has filled you in with what happened, yes?" Queen Geila waits for him to nod before continuing. "Do you know anything about these creatures?"

Caleb swallows the food he had been chewing and nods again. "Yes, I do. I had him describe them to me, and it sounds like they're Bullywugs." Beau stifles a snort and he only briefly glances at her before turning his attention back to the Queens in front of him. "They are creatures that like wet areas like forests with a lot of rain, damp caves, and bogs or marshes. On their own, they aren't much of an issue, but they're formidable in groups. They don't often raid settlements unless they're fairly certain they'll win. To attack someplace with Mirguard protection..."

"They must be desperate for something," Beau murmurs. "What do they take?"

"Food, magical items, baubles that they find interesting to add to their hoard." Caleb says.

"Do you think they're... feeding something?" Fjord asks.

"They do befriend other frogs, specifically giant ones that they occasionally ride. But they wouldn't require so much food."

"This doesn't bode well." Queen Magdalen says. "Can you send your Mirguard in?"

Queen Geila purses her lips. "Perhaps, but that means fewer people defending the city or the people these Bullywugs attacked." Beau raises her finger to get her mothers attention. "Beauregard?"

"We can fight those guys. I mean, this is like what I talked about before. If everyone's down, we could go find these frogs and figure out what's going on. We get rid of whatever's going on, it'll strengthen the faith people have in us, and strengthen the bond between Dreyos and Thaydor if Molly and Yasha come. Win-win. And if we're successful, we can just keep going."

"Beauregard, it will be dangerous." Queen Geila warns, her concern showing on her face.

"So is sending down Mirguard, and so is hoping whatever's over there is just going to go away." Beau points out.

"Who is this 'we?' " Queen Magdalen asks.

"Well, assuming everyone agrees, me, Jester, Fjord, Molly, Yasha, Caleb, and Nott." Beau says. "I don't mean to volunteer anybody, I'm just saying I think we could make a good team. But I'm not forcing anybody."

"I'm in," Yasha nods.

"As am I," Molly says.

"Fjord and I are in!" Jester says excitedly.

Caleb hesitates and glances at his best friend, who looks up at him with her big yellow eyes.

"Caleb, I think... I think this could be good for us." She says softly enough that only he can hear. "It sounds scary, fighting big frog people, but this is our chance to explore and gain more knowledge."

"Ja. I just worry about you standing out. We've been lucky here in the castle, where no one cares about you being a goblin, but I worry about what might happen once we leave these walls."

Nott nods, blinking once. "Yeah. Yeah. But perhaps the best camouflage is only a little camouflage? With my mask and gloves and my hood, I've been hidden whenever I get the itch. And with these weirdos, people will be staring so hard at them, they won't notice the little goblin girl. Especially not with the woman tall enough to be a skyscraper that's a famous fighter and a Princess, and with Princess Beau, who always looks like she's ready to punch someone in the face. It's up to you Caleb, I'll follow you wherever you go."

Caleb leans back from their conversation, brows furrowed as he makes eye contact with Beau, who's looking at him. He can tell that if he ran away and declined like he wants to, she would let him. And perhaps that's why instead, he says "Ja. We are in, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Mighty Nein comes together! Whoo! And I had both Beau (natural 16) and Caleb (natural 14) roll to see what they know about these frog boys, and with Caleb's +5 intelligence,, he knows a whole dang lot! And guys, I love Bullywugs, they're the first thing that I flipped to when I first opened the Monster Manual, and I love frogs so I was like "this! This is what I'm going to use!" Anywho! Next chapter, more of this! And let me know what pairings you prefer! I'm thinking Yashregard (ofc), Jester and Fjord, and Molly and Caleb! Or, we can go the threesome way and say Yasha, Beau, and Jester, and then Caleb, Fjord, and Molly! Or other combinations! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	11. Chapter 11

"Ja. We are in, too."

"Then it's settled." Beau claps her hand together with a grin. "Let's go punch some frogs." She cracks her knuckles and her mother flinches at the sound.

"Beauregard. Will you be patient with this? I would like you to wait, allow Caleb to research more and allow you all to train and gather energy." Queen Geila says.

"That would work well with me," Caleb says, looking to Beau. "In fact, if you would not mind Beauregard, you are a very good researcher. It would help if you would assist me."

Beau groans, but keeps herself from making it too loud so that she doesn't anger her mom. "Reading boring stuff?"

"Research is not boring." Caleb murmurs, then continues at his normal quietness. "It will make it go faster, and we can leave quicker."

Beau crosses her arms and lets out a breath. "Fine. Is it just me, or are you guys going to help too?" She looks to Fjord and Jester specifically, knowing that they'll be able to keep her from being bored out of her mind.

"We would be happy to help," Fjord answers quickly. "Molly, Yasha, you're more than welcome to join us. You don't have to read Caleb's research books."

"I'm in," Molly agrees.

"I am too. I like reading." Yasha says.

Beau looks to Yasha with interest shining in her eyes. Somehow, that doesn't surprise her.

"Ah. Perhaps we can continue this later, after dinner." Caleb suggests, giving a shy but respectful smile to Queen Geila.

"Your Highnesses, we will of course inform you when we are about to part. Depending on how long the research takes, it should be within the next couple days."

The queens nod and make eye contact with each other. Queen Magdalena speaks. "Yasha, Beauregard. If you wouldn't mind staying afterwards, we would like to talk."

Beau feels her entire body lock up in instant panic and she uses the breathing exercises the Cobalt Soul taught her to keep from letting herself completely flinch. She glances over to Yasha, who looks semi-uncomfortable, though Beau could just be projecting.

"Of course," Yasha agrees with a nod.

The rest of the dinner goes by quickly, with a lot less small talk due to the interruption. Once they're finished, the others excuse themselves, leaving just the parents, Yasha, and Beau. It almost feels like they're about to be interrogated, which Beau is sure isn't far from the truth.

"So," Horace says with a smile that looks almost predatory. "Have you girls made a decision?"

Beau purses her lips, hating how he calls them girls instead of the grown ass women they are. She looks over to Yasha and then back to her father.

"Kind of," Beau answers. "We don't exactly know a ton about each other, so we can't exactly say for certain. But so far, we're both in. We just want some time to get to know each other, you know, make sure. So no final decision yet, no announcement. But we'll get there. This traveling should help."

Horace doesn't look pleased but Queen Geila and Queen Magdalen both nod in understanding.

"Very well," Queen Magdalen says. "I want you to be happy. Both of you."

Beau blinks in surprise, not having expected the Queen to have taken a shine to her.

"Unless you have anything else, you're dismissed." Queen Geila says. "You can go rejoin your friends."

Beau give her mother a respectful nod and stands, waiting for Yasha to stand before leaving. The two women walk into the corridors of the castle. Beau lets out a breath, looking over to Yasha, who's still quiet.

"Was that okay? Me telling them all that?" Beau asks.

Yasha looks over at her and gives her a small smile as she nods. "Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking about the frogs."

Beau nods. "Yeah. That'll be an interesting fight, to say the least."

"Oh there you are!" Molly says as their head pops out from hallway. They grin and gesture for Yasha and Beau to follow them. "Come on, it's time to research."

Beau doesn't quite stifle her groan enough for it to be inaudible and Yasha gives her an amused look.

They follow Molly and Beau has to admit that she's impressed that they remember where the library is. They open the door for the library for Beau and Yasha. They both thank them and Beau almost walks right back out of the room when she sees the amount of books on the table. Someone has pushed a couple tables together and in the center is three medium sized book stacks.

The others are already reading. Caleb has a notebook next to the book he has open and he scrawls notes as he reads, flipping pages at least twice as fast as the others. Fjord has reclined back in his chair and gotten comfortable as he looks intently at the book he has. Jester's head is bopping slightly along to the music playing in her head. Her legs swing back and forth underneath her chair. Nott is hunched in her chair, bent over her book.

Beau sighs and sits down on one of the three empty chairs. She takes one off the middle pile and gets to work. Yasha sits next to her and takes another book, while Molly sits next to her and picks up a book as well.

Whenever someone finds something that might be even remotely useful, they tell Caleb and he writes it down. The research takes them late into the night until Caleb realizes what time it is and sends them off to bed, saying they can reconvene in the morning to do more research. Beau's tired enough that she doesn't even try to hold back her groan at his words.

"We have made good progress, Beauregard." Caleb says as they all walk towards their rooms. "If we continue like this, we should finish tomorrow and be able to leave the next day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo, plot development! Next chapter, they finish researching and head out! I can't wait for the fight scenes lol. And I think Caduceus is showing up soon too ;) Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	12. Chapter 12

After a full day of researching that luckily ends up with then finding out some good information, Beau is more than ready to head out the next day. A lot of it is reiterating what Caleb already knew, and expanding on it a bit. Though they do find out new information in that there's usually a stronger, smarter being that's their leader. Which doesn't exactly bode well, and sends Caleb into a furiously researching state. He finds a few creatures that have been linked to Bullywugs, but nothing concrete enough for him to feel less nervous about this whole thing.

"Don't worry Caleb, I'll protect you from whatever's down there." Nott pats Caleb, trying to reassure him.

"Danke Nott."

"Can we go to bed and meet again in the morning? We've been here the entire day." Beau says.

"Ja, ja. We should get sleep before we head out." Caleb rubs his face, wincing at the stubble already beginning to poke out. "Thank you all for help. I will see you all in the morning?"

"Of course," Fjord nods. "Where should we meet?"

"The training area. I need to work out before we leave," Beau murmurs the second sentence. If she weren't so tired from staring at words all day, she would be out there right now, punching something.

"The training area," Jester confirms. "Don't forget your weapons! We're going to take apart these frog people!"

"Yeah!" Nott raises her fist and Jester bumps it with hers, grinning.

***

The next morning, Beau's body wakes her up early. That doesn't always happen, but she's glad it did today. That means today she can definitely get her workout in before everyone starts showing up to the training area. She quickly gets dressed, gets her things, and grabs breakfast, quickly thanking Casy before she rushes to the training area.

Beau sets down her things and scarfs down her breakfast. She heads immediately to the pull-up bar she had installed when she first took over this training area and starts her morning routine. Since yesterday she was sitting around and reading books all day, she does more reps than usual on all of her usual workouts.

When Fjord comes out alongside Caleb and Nott, none of them are particularly surprised to see Beau doing push-ups in essentially just her pants and bindings on the dusty ground. They sit down nearby, setting their packs down and relaxing. Within the next hour, everyone else has shown up and Beau is finishing her very extended workout routine.

She gets up from the ground from her last round of sit-ups, her body glistening with sweat. Fjord wordlessly tosses her a towel.

"Thanks," she says.

Beau wipes herself off, getting the sweat and grime off her face first before toweling off her torso. If she weren't tired from her workout, she might've attempted to look sexy for Yasha. But it's kind of hard to even feel sexy when you're covered in a layer of dust and sweat.

"Everybody ready?" Beau asks as she sets the towel next to her bag. She has her own towels in it, so she can just drop the smelly one off from today with some unfortunate guard to bring to the launders.

Everyone nods and grabs their things and Fjord interjects before they can just go. "We should tell the Queen that we're leaving."

"Shit, we did say that." Beau murmurs and then sighs. "Alright. Lets go." Fjord's about to open his mouth and say something, so she elaborates. "To the castle. I don't want to incur the wrath of my mom."

Everyone makes their way back to the castle, heading to the throne room. The guards bow their heads as they enter the room and Beau tries not to think too hard about that. The Queens of Dreyos and Thaydor are sitting alone at a table, deep in a discussion that pauses when the doors to the throne room open. They both stand as the group approaches, Yasha and Beau naturally ending up at the front.

"So you're leaving?" Queen Magdalena asks, looking at the young woman she's taken in as her own.

"Yes," Yasha confirms in a soft voice.

Queen Magdalena's lips twitch back like she's trying to smile but it comes across as more of a worried grimace. "Be careful, darling." She requests, reaching up with one calloused hand to cup Yasha's face, which is almost comical because of how much taller Yasha is than the Queen.

Yasha smiles softly and presses a kiss to her mother's hand. "Of course. You know me."

"I do know you," the Queen agrees. "That's why I want to remind you to take care of yourself, not just others."

"I will."

"I'll make sure she stays safe, Your Highness." Molly says with a bow after a pause.

The Queen's smile gets more genuine and relaxed as she looks at them. "Thank you, Mollymauk. I appreciate that."

"Of course, My Lady."

Queen Geila steps forward next, to her own daughter. Her face appears to be carefully blank, but Beau knows her well enough to see the worry in her eyes and the furrow in her brows.

"Beauregard," she murmurs. "Please don't do anything foolish. Your safety is more important than these frogs."

"I'll be careful. And besides, I have Fjord and Jester to keep me in line and everybody here to help me. I'll be okay," Beau says.

Queen Geila looks slightly more relaxed and gives her daughter a small smile. "I hope so. I love you, Beau."

"I love you too, Mom."

After a hug that's a lot less awkward than any hug she's had with her mother before, Beau's ready to get out of there. It's just... Weird. Yasha and Queen Magdalena say their goodbyes and I love yous and hug before one final goodbye between everyone.

"Oh!" Queen Geila clasps her hands together and smiles at her daughter. "Beauregard, there's a present outside for you and your friends. Good luck on your adventure."

"Thanks, Mom." Beau says, waving before the doors to the throne room shut behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, a continuation of this! And I think Caduceus is going to show up, either next chapter or the one after that! And guess what? As you may or may not know, I'm non-binary, and I've been like looking for a name that's less feminine for me, and I think I've found it! So I might just be Beau the Disaster Lesbian in real life, because Beau is the name I really like! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	13. Chapter 13

The first thing Beau notices as she exits the castle is the horses. Second is the wagon attached to two of the horses, while two more are stopped nearby. All of them are being kept in place by people that Beau vaguely recognizes as stable hands.

One takes off his cap and approaches them, hat in his hand as a smile spreads across his dirt-smudged face. He bows lowly, and then pops back up, grin still on his face. "Hello. I'm sure Her Majesty informed you that she had a gift for you-"

"Our gift is horses?" Nott asks, her big yellow eyes focusing on Caleb as she continues in an only slightly quieter voice. "What good are they if they aren't cooked? Or at least skinned?"

The boy clears his throat, electing to ignore Nott's questions altogether. "This is what the stable can spare at the moment, and with a party your size and a well-crafted wagon, this should easily work well for any journey."

"Ooh! Do they have names yet?" Jester asks, looking at the slightly bored looking horses with wide, sparkling eyes.

"Not yet, no. Usually we have the rider, whether it be a courier, a knight, or the Queen herself, name their horses. It helps bond the horse and the rider."

"So we get to name them?" Jester asks, her voice raising a couple octaves in her excitement. "Nott, help me name them!"

"Well, alright." Nott squints at the horses. "We should have some sort of theme with their names to make them easier to remember."

"Good idea Nott! You name the first and then we'll go from there!" Jester claps her hands together.

"How about... That one is Winter's Crest, after the festival Caleb told me about." Nott points to the first one, a dark brown horse with a white diamond shape on its nose. "Or WC for short."

There's an immediate snort from Caleb and for once, he doesn't seem too overwhelmed by it as he looks at his friend. "Nott, do you know what WC means in Zemnian?"

"What?"

"Water closet, like a bathroom."

Nott laughs, her eyes bright with amusement and delight. "Jester, I think I found our theme. The rest are Loo, John, and that's Crapper."

The group of friends burst into laughter and the stable hand looks mildly distressed.

Once everyone calms down, Fjord goes over to the stable hand and gives him a gold piece, thanking him, while the other begin putting their stuff on the cart. The stable hand nods, looking less distressed than earlier, then runs off to the stables.

"Who wants to ride the cart and who would like to ride a horse?"

"I'll ride a horse," Beau says.

"Ooh! I will too!" Jester looks excitedly over the horses. "I'll take Toilet!"

"Then I'll take Crapper. Appropriately, he's the perfect shade of brown."

Jester looks at Crapper and giggles. "He is!" She holds up her hand and Beau high fives it.

"We may want to get more horses at some point." Caleb rubs his beard as he looks at the cart. "All of us in there is quite a strain for two horses."

"My horse is in the stables," Yasha says. "It should be easier for, um..."

"John and Loo," Nott provides.

"Yes. It should be easier for them if I rode my horse."

"Good idea, darling. We'll finish packing our stuff while you go get Horse." Molly nods to the current mess that everyone's stuff is, all piled in the wagon.

Because the wagon doesn't have a lot of room for people to help move things around, it's mainly Molly, Nott, and Caleb who organize everyone's things. Fjord, Beau, and Jester stand nearby to hold things necessary.

Beau, bored and holding a horribly gaudy tapestry of the Platinum Dragon, is the first to notice Yasha return. Her eyes widen enough that Jester looks too. Yasha is leading a giant horse that's easily one-and-a-half times their other ones that's a light tan color and has muscles in ways Beau didn't know horses could.

"I thought you had a horse?" Nott asks as she approaches.

It's then that Beau realizes she's not even using a rope to pull it along, the horse is just following behind Yasha.

"It is. This is Horse."

"What does that mean?" Caleb asks, setting down what was in his hands as he leans forward. "Is that a grammatical error or did you name your horse Horse?"

"Her name is Horse," Yasha explains. She looks at her horse and strokes its nose. "She's been with me for years. We have gone to battle together more times than I can count."

Beau nods, continuing to stare at the horse that's taller than she is. It whinnies softly and then makes direct eye contact with her. Beau's eyes widen and Horse huffs. Beau breaks eye contact first, looking back over to Yasha.

Yasha is walking around her horse, checking her carefully. Raising up her hooves to make sure the muck has been scraped out and checking the straps on the large saddle. She adjusts a couple before she seems satisfied.

Beau tries not to keep watching how gentle this extremely buff woman is with this extremely buff horse, but fails. She still holds things when they're placed in her arms, but she barely pays any attention to what they're doing. She knows Jester will probably tease her about it later.

Once everything is packed up, Beau and Jester head over to Toilet and Crapper. Beau's about to get on when she hears Jester speak.

"Beau? How do I get on?"

Beau blinks and looks over to Jester. "Have you not ridden a horse before?"

"Only that one time when we rode through the forest." There's a short pause. "Fjord and I walked everywhere."

"We, ah. We couldn't afford horses." Fjord explains from the back of the cart.

Beau is still caught off guard, but heads over to Jester to help her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, Beau teaches Jester how to get on a horse! Then they finally head on the road! I wouldn't have dragged it out this much but I really enjoy how they name their horses in CR haha and I couldn't resist! Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	14. Chapter 14

"First things first, Jes. You're on the wrong side." Beau says as she walks up.

"What? There's a wrong side of a horse?"

"Kind of. A long time ago, there were some knights or soldiers or some shit that decided that they wanted their weapons to go on the right side. In order for them not to slice their leg open on pointy stuff, they got on the other side. And people just... Never stopped doing that."

There's a pause and Beau looks around to see some surprised and impressed faces. And Molly squinting at her like she's a puzzle they're trying to figure out.

"What?" She asks, crossing her arms. "I know stuff. Some of those lectures cut through my attempts to tune it out. Anyways, other side Jes."

"Alright! You're smart, Beau. I don't know why you hide it." Jester skips to the other side of Toilet.

Beau shakes her head and walks over to Jester. "Alright. Stick your left foot in the stirrup." Jester nods and studies the saddle intently. "The dangly bit. Yeah. Now use those muscles and pull your other leg over to the other side and sit down."

"Whoo!" Jester whoops as she sits down, raising her hands in the air victoriously.

Beau gets on Crapper and clicks her tongue. She guides the horse to the front so that she's in front of the wagon. There's a creak of wooden wheels as they begin to turn before settling into a steady rumble. She leads the others out of the castle walls and through the streets.

Using her knowledge of the city, she directs them to the less populated roads. Both so that she doesn't have to fake a smile and wave at the populous when someone inevitably recognizes her. It happens more often now that she's back at the castle, people recognizing her. When she ran away, as long as she acted like herself, nobody thought she was the "Princess".

They weave through the roads and while there aren't enough people to slow down the horses or the wagon, some people do notice and recognize Beau. She's not trying to conceal who she is or hide in plain sight. She does end up having to wave, but she doesn't fake a smile. Beau figures that she has Jester with her, her smile is bright enough.

They exit the city after Beau has to get off and hand the Mirguard at the entrance the official documents from her parents and Yasha's. She wasn't supposed to leave the city at the behest of her parents, but it isn't really enforced or anything. Besides, if she wanted to get out of the city, she can think of at least five easier ways off the top of her head that would work better than going out one of the main gates.

They continue out of the city, and they make pretty good time once they're out of the city. It takes a bit, but they find a good rhythm on the road. Beau's keeping an eye out since she's in front, along with Jester, who joined her after they left the city.

"Beau. You weren't paying attention when we were organizing the cart." Jester says, a wide smirk on her face.

"Yeah. I was distracted."

"By Yasha." Jester stage whispers Yasha's name.

Beau glances back to see how close they are to where Caleb's driving the cart. They're not too close, and with the mixture of the horses clomping along, the rumble of the cart, and Nott and Molly's continuous chatter, Beau's sure they're not paying too close attention.

"I'm not admitting to anything."

"Alright, Beau." Jester draws out her name. "I won't push you about your super duper big crush on Yasha."

Beau elects to ignore the second part, but she knows that Jester can read her better than most people can.

***

"Where should we stop for the night?" Caleb calls out.

"There's a place somewhere ahead that I heard about. It shouldn't be too far." Fjord says.

"There's a graveyard up ahead." Molly says.

"You want to sleep in the graveyard?" Fjord asks.

"I don't want to be eaten by zombies," Nott says.

"We can fight off zombies, don't worry. I've slept in a graveyard before and nothing happened." They shrug. "And there's a small house or something there. It's surrounded by a forest."

This makes Beau look back at them with a incredulous expression. "In the Tamlet Fields? There's a forest there? Are you sure they weren't lying to you?"

She watches as Molly shrugs again. "Maybe they were. But that certainly does look like more than four trees up ahead."

Beau turns back around and squints. On the horizon, over a few more hills, is a whole bunch of trees. As they get closer, she can see that it doesn't go on for a long time, but it certainly is a large patch of trees in the middle of the Tamlet Fields. And as they get to the top of a hill, she can see a break in the tree line, a roughly square shape where there aren't trees.

Beau gets an almost foreboding feeling as soon as they get close to the trees. The sun's almost down, they another have half an hour of light at most. They all slow their pace as they move in the forest, everyone keeping a closer eye out for anything that might want to murder them to death.

"Anyone vehemently object to trying to find a place to sleep in that graveyard?" Caleb asks. No one speaks up and he nods. "Okay."

It doesn't take them long to reach the clearing. The forest isn't incredibly big, after all. But it does give off this aura that makes Beau ready to punch whatever pops out of the shadows. There are old crumbling stone walls, the oldest reaching alongside the road. Each layer, the walls are less crumbled but no less retaken by the weird forest. Within the newest wall are the graves, like they've been forced to move closer to the center structure every time a wall fails.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, we meet Caduceus Clay! I'm excited, I absolutely love him! He's so mellow, and that's almost how I am most of the time? But not that extreme of course haha. And I've been reading some good other TM9 fics, and I really enjoy one where Duce is non-binary too! Let me know if y'all have strong opinions either way! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!


	15. Chapter 15

"I feel like we should check out the house." Fjord nods in its direction. "Make sure nothing spooky's going on there."

"Are you sure it's a house? It could be a mausoleum full of zombies!" Nott says.

Beau studies the building ahead, but it just looks like a building to her. She shrugs to Nott and dismounts her horse.

"I don't know, Nott. It looks like a house to me. Overgrown, but a house." Molly points out the vines creeping up the home, in some areas obscuring the building material entirely. They squint and slowly get off the wagon. "There's a light on in there."

"Zombies don't turn on lights, Nott." Jester says as she dismounts Toilet.

"Bandits do!"

Everyone quiets at Nott's words and they all pile out of the wagon or get off their horses as silently as they can.

"Should we leave someone here with the horses?" Caleb asks, rubbing his stubby beard nervously.

"They're well trained. Even if something spooks them, they won't go far." Beau says. "They'll be fine."

He nods and waits for someone else to go first. It seems like they're waiting for someone to take initiative, so Beau goes in the front. She easily steps over or parkours over the walls, creeping maybe ten feet ahead of the rest of the group. She walks up to the house and pauses, listening. But all she can hear is the wind and creak of the house.

Beau peeks in the window, but she can't see much. All she can see is a small contained fire in the fireplace in what looks to be a well-stocked kitchen. She hears a loud ribbit behind her and looks back to see Nott lifting her foot with wide eyes. She grimaces to Beau, a silent apology, as Beau begins to hear some shuffling from inside.

Beau gets back from the window and draws her bo as the others gets closer to her, preparing themselves as well. The door creaks ominously as it opens and Beau almost drops her bo.

There's someone, a kind of creature she's only heard of, that's at the door. They're tall and skinny with a soft, almost dopey smile on their face. They tower over everyone, easily more than a foot taller than Yasha. They have pale skin and gray fur with a long pink Mohawk off to one side with a little bit of a pink beard. They're wearing a silk-like shirt with long flowy sleeves. They look out at the shocked people standing in their graveyard, holding a gently steaming cup of tea. 

"I think I've only got three more cups, hold on." They head back inside, leaving the door open.

Beau looks back towards the others, who either look confused, or in the cases of Jester and Mollymauk, absolutely delighted.

"They look so cool!" Jester whispers excitedly.

"I love the pink hair. Do you think it's natural?" Molly says back, still looking at the door as they sheathe their swords.

They come back carrying a kettle on a tripod and set it down. They set a rod with a chunk of amethyst underneath it and tap it a couple times. The kettle starts to make sounds like the water is bubbling as the large person wanders into the graveyard and picks some flowers.

Beau hadn't noticed the flowers until now, and it looks like the others hadn't either, as everyone takes in the plethora of beautiful flowers all over the graveyard within the most recent wall. Yasha sheathes her sword and reaches down to pick one, a soft smile spreading across her face as she smells it.

"Do you need any help with the flowers?" Nott offers to the person while Caleb studies them intently. "Do you need any help there, Mister?" She pauses. "Mister? Misses?"

"Mister Clay is fine, as long as you know that I don't really identify as a man." They shrug. "Gender is weird."

Molly laughs delightedly, the loud, almost crow-like sound breaking the quiet tension and making everyone around them relax. "It really is, Mister Clay."

Mister Clay smiles at Molly before turning to Nott to answer her fully. "Nah, I'm fine. One second." They come back with a pile of red-purple flowers that they're grinding up. "This is from Castala. Textile family generations ago, but they make very good tea now."

"Wait, back up a second." Beau says. "Are you Mister Clay?"

"Mm. Caduceus Clay. Sit." They gesture to the ground.

They all comply while Caduceus sets out three cups. 

Nott attempts to make small talk with them as they wait. "Hi." Caduceus holds up one finger. "Oh, we have to wait?"

Caduceus pours the tea into the three cups. "You have to share, I apologize."

"I just drink booze, so it's fine." Nott brings out her flask.

"Would you like to share, dear?" Molly asks Yasha.

"Alright." Yasha nods.

"Fjord and I care share," Jester says as she accepts a cup.

"Uh, sure." Fjord agrees.

Beau takes the last one and silently moves closer to Caleb so that they can share.

"Please, feel free to let me know what you think." Caduceus says as they watch the others take sips.

"It's delicious." Molly hums.

"Only grows here," Caduceus says proudly. They press their hands together and look around. "Friends, you have come." They let out a soft sigh. "Let me know what I can do for you. Usually when people come here, it is because of some great tragedy. How may I alleve your pain?"

"Well, there have been tragedies but we're passing to try to help with that." Fjord says.

"Have you heard of frog people?" Jester asks.

"What do you mean by that? I know frogs, they're rather nice."

"There are frog people that are harrying the folks that live nearby. We offered to help get rid of them, and any information is greatly useful and much appreciated." Fjord says as Jester passes him the cup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, more of Mister Clay! I really hope I got their voice right, they're easily one of my favorite characters (and I just really enjoy nb! headcanons)! I have a Druid firbolg that's like them! As always, let me know if there are any ships you would like me to try to put in! And let me know if the voices for everyone sounds right, I appreciate constructive criticism greatly! I should have A LOT more time to write now! I had less than a week to write a paper that I thought was due later, then it was exam week! But I definitely have more time to write, so updates shouldn't take as horribly long! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!


	16. Chapter 16

“Oh, those frog people. Yeah, they’ve been a hassle.” Caduceus nods to themself in between sips of tea. “I’ve been having some customers who have met their unfortunate end because of some of their more bold actions.”

“Do you know where they’re holing up?” Nott asks.

Caduceus thinks for a second. “Not specifically, but I would assume they’re somewhere near Bijou. That’s where the people who were killed by them that I’ve laid to rest have come from.”

“Thank you very much for your information, that’s very helpful.” Fjord says. 

Beau glances back towards where the horses are and grimaces when she notices the sun setting behind them. “I hate to cut this short Deuce, but we should find somewhere to sleep soon.”

“Please don’t call me Deuce,” they say in their calm voice. “And you’re all more than welcome to sleep here. We can leave in the morning.”

“We?” Fjord asks, blinking. “You want to join us?”

“If that’s not too much of a bother.”

“You’re not a bother, dear.” Molly quickly interjects and gives Caduceus a winning smile that they return.

“Thank you. All of my family has gone off in different directions to try to figure out what's going on with our home. You may have noticed the walls.” They gesture towards the broken walls past the newest ones. “The forest has slowly been creeping in. I’ve been hoping the Wildmother would send some folks, so I can travel safely and try to help my home by figuring out the curse.”

“It won't be the first thing on our group list for a little while. Is that ah, alright with you?” Caleb asks.

Caduceus nods. “I have faith that the Wildmother will guide me towards my destiny. And you seem like nice folks, trying to help people.”

“It’s good you have faith in your god!” Jester says, then her eyes light up. “Mister Clay, do you want to have a sleepover with us?”

“Now, Jester-” Fjord begins quietly.

“I would love to; I haven’t slept under the stars in a while. That’ll be nice.”

“I’ll go check on the horses, you guys can set it up.” Beau says, excusing herself quickly.

“I’ll come with you,” Yasha murmurs.

Beau pointedly ignores Jester raising and lowering her eyebrows at her as she lets Yasha catch up to her. The horses are fine and grazing nearby, and only Horse looks up when they near. 

Yasha walks to her horse and smiles softly when it whinnies at her. She raises her hand and Horse presses its nose to her hand. She begins speaking quietly to it in a language that Beau doesn’t recognize, her voice quiet but gentle and the language absolutely beautiful. 

Beau forces herself to look away. Partly because she doesn’t want to get caught swooning over a muscled woman that’s also adorably gentle. But also because she knows that her gay ass would fall for Yasha so much quicker if she keeps watching. Yasha’s an easy woman to fall for, especially for a self-identified Disaster Lesbian.

Beau heads over to the other horses and attempts to coax them towards the walls, and they don’t seem like they want to. Beau's eyebrows scrunch, trying to figure out what's making them hesitant about getting close to the graveyard. She knows from personal experience that horses aren’t generally afraid of regular graveyards, as she's often had to meet some of her… business contacts in graveyards for privacy. 

“Maybe Caduceus was right, there is a curse. Horses are good at sensing things like that.” Yasha says from behind Beau. 

Beau practically jumps out of her skin and spins around. “Geez! Fuck, you can be sneaky!”

Yasha has a small smile on her face as she responds. “Sorry for scaring you.”

“Nah, you're fine. I wasn’t paying attention.” Beau waves her off. She contemplates what Yasha said for a moment, looking back towards the graveyard, then towards the horses. Now that she's not trying to guide them towards it, they're calmer. “You might be right. What should we do with them, then?”

“We can guide them around to where Caduceus is, leave the wagon further back. I don’t think they’ll protest about having horses nearby while we sleep.”

“They’ll probably make friends with the horses,” Beau says. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Maybe Caleb can have Frumpkin keep watch.”

Yasha looks confused. “Frumpkin?”

“Yeah, Caleb’s magic cat. You may have seen him around the library, but I don’t think Caleb’s had Frumpkin on him while you’ve been around. You’ll love him, he's a sweet cat. But uh, we should take care of the horses first. Want to help me with that?”

Yasha nods and they lead the horses pulling the cart towards the outer wall so it’s out of the way of the path. The horses don’t seem happy, but with Beau and Yasha's expertise with the animals along with Beau cooing and talking softly to them while Yasha speaks to them in that beautiful language, the horses comply. They seem relieved when they're unhitched from the cart, moving away from it towards the other horses. 

“Should we store their saddles and stuff on the wagon?” Beau asks.

Yasha nods and they get to work taking off saddles and bridles. The horses relax further once they're unencumbered. Beau and Yasha work in relative silence except for when they give each other directions. 

Once the horses are all ready, Beau and Yasha lead the horses back towards where the others are. 

“Beau, Yasha! Can you believe that Caduceus has never had a sleepover before?” Jester asks as they approach with the horses. 

“Oh hey, you guys have horses.” Caduceus says, walking towards them with a smile. “Hey, how are you doing?”

At first Beau thinks they're talking to her, but then she hears a horse whinny behind her. “Of course they can talk to horses,” she mutters.

“Can't you?” Caduceus asks, looking away from John to her. 

“Most people can't,” Beau says.

Caduceus looks back at the horse, a surprised and semi-confused expression on their face. “Huh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo a chapter! I've missed writing for this story, it's my favorite to write rn! Happy holidays y'all! And I'm so happy Caduceus is finally here :) And Beau and Yasha will talk more eventually, they're just both Awkward Lesbians! And guys, I'll see if I can include Zuala in Yasha's backstory, I think I can! That episode made me cry, which isn't easy to do... My poor Yasha D: Anywho, thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!


	17. Chapter 17

“Hey Caleb, can you make your cat be a lookout?” Beau asks, walking towards him with Yasha trailing a couple steps behind her. 

Caleb looks up from where he was sitting on the ground and reading a book. Nott’s next to him looking at the flowers and it’s only when Caleb looks up that Beau notices that he has Frumpkin around his neck like a scarf.

“He would not be a very good lookout, Beauregard. I would have to stay up with him.” Caleb says, reaching up to scratch Frumpkin. “But I do have a spell where I could take a string around where we are sleeping. It will alert me if anyone goes through the line that I don’t want to.”

“That’s a pretty cool spell, Caleb.” Jester says, plopping down next to him. “Could you teach me it?”

“I, ah. I’m not sure. We could try it at some point.”

“How long does it last?” Fjord asks.

“Eight hours. It will take me ten minutes to cast, so I can do that before we go to bed. We should get settled in first.”

“Alright. Fjord, help me set up the tents!” Jester gets up and drags him over while Molly and Caduceus trail behind them to help. 

Caleb stands up and looks vaguely alarmed when Beauregard walks up to him. “Caleb,” she says in a quiet voice. “Yasha hasn’t met Frumpkin yet.”

Caleb looks incredibly obviously over to Yasha and Beau grimaces, hoping that she doesn’t notice. “Oh. I ah, I suppose he may have been wandering in the library.” Beau widens her eyes at him and he looks confused. “What are you trying to say, Beauregard?”

“Could you have Frumpkin say hello to Yasha?”

“Oh. Um, jah.” 

With that, Frumpkin yawns and stretches out his legs while still around Caleb’s neck, his claws momentarily flexing out his claws. Frumpkin meows softly and Caleb snaps his fingers so Frumpkin appears a couple feet in front of him. Frumpkin flicks his tail and begins padding over to Yasha, who has bent down to look at the flowers.

She turns to look at him when she sees something moving towards her on the edge of her vision. Yasha's eyes widen briefly and she holds out her hand for Frumpkin to smell. He sniffs it and then pushes his head against it. A small but soft smile warms Yasha's face as she sits down on the ground, gently scratching behind Frumpkin’s ear.

“Hello,” she says quietly. “Are you the cat Beau was talking about?” She continues giving him scratches as she looks up to where Beau and Caleb are. “Caleb, is this your magic cat?”

“Ja. His name is Frumpkin.”

Yasha smiles at the cat that’s started rubbing against her again. “You are a very orange cat.” She looks back to Caleb. “Is he real?”

“How would he not be?” 

“Beau said he’s a magic cat, and that you haven’t had him with you, but now he's here.”

“Oh, sometimes he poofs. He is a real cat.” 

At Yasha's confused look, Caleb snaps his fingers and Yasha's scratching at thin air. He snaps his fingers again and Frumpkin’s back in front of Yasha. She looks at the cat in front of her that meows at her. She holds out her fingers again. This time Frumpkin just takes a quick sniff and then rubs up against her. 

“Frumpkin can be here, or Frumpkin can be there,” Caleb explains. “Right now, he is here.”

“Cay-leb,” Jester says from where she's setting up tents. “When someone kicks him and he poofs, does he just automatically go to the other place or does he like die for a little bit and come back.”

“That has only happened once, Jester.” There’s a flash of anger on Caleb’s usually blank face as he thinks of the guard he ended up getting fired. “No, I think it is pretty instantaneous and-and honestly, I am so glad to have him. But I think it is probably nicer on the other side. Did your mother ever read you stories about the Fey, the Feywild? And-and sprites and blumpkins and uh, that’s not the word.”

“My mother never did, but the Traveler told me lots of stories.” Jester says, helping with the final tent. 

“Of the Feywild?” Caleb asks.

“Of everywhere.”

“This Feywild,” Fjord says, looking over to Caleb once he's finished with the last tent. “Is it like another… city?”

“Ah, it is another plane of existence that is a mirror just slightly off of our own. With us, but apart from us at all times.”

“There's fairies and there's- that’s how the unicorns get over here.” Jester explains. 

“One thing at a time,” Fjord says, looking somewhat overwhelmed. 

“There's like elves and stuff…” Jester trails off as Yasha opens her mouth to speak. 

“He's making a very strange noise right now.” Yasha said worriedly to Caleb, still giving Frumpkin scratches. 

“What's it sound like?” Fjord asks as he moves to step closer but then pauses, thinking the better of it.

Yasha blows out, imitating a purring noise.

“That means he likes you,” Caleb explains with a soft smile. 

“Do you not have cats where you grew up?” Nott asks, looking up from where she’s been picking flowers. 

“I, no, well yes and I-I've heard of cats but this…” Yasha pauses for a moment, her gaze falling to the cat that has now curled up on her lap, purring as she gives him scratches. Frumpkin is one of the first-”

“Do they have dogs?” Nott’s wide yellow eyes are glowing slightly in the dim light as she looks at Yasha curiously.

“We have many creatures.”

“Do you have wolves?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Yasha repeats, nodding. 

“What did you keep as pets?” Beau asks. 

Yasha's eyes lock with Beau's and Beau tries to ignore how her heart skips a beat. “We didn’t really have any. I mean, my family did not. Some do, but it is not as common.”

“You didn’t have pets?” Beau asks, her brows furrowing. 

When Beau was growing up, her parents had some dogs that roamed the castle and kept her company. These past couple years, and since she came back, they haven’t been around. It made the castle feel so much lonelier. 

“No.” Yasha shrugs. Beau makes a sympathetic noise as Yasha continues to pet Frumpkin. “But I like him.”

Caleb focuses on his cat and Yasha's eyes widen with delight as Frumpkin begins to make biscuits with his kitty feet. 

Molly flounces over to Yasha and sits down next to her, a warm and almost childlike expression of glee on their face as they hold out their hand. Frumpkin turns his head, still kneading Yasha's pants as he sniffs Molly's hand. They coo at him as they scratch at his head. Frumpkin’s purrs grow louder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! It's been a while :/ But here we go, with another chapter! Usually I don't take scenes from the show but they just fit so well with Caduceus and with Yasha and Frumpkin... No regrets! And let me know if you guys have a preference of Yasha and Beau, or Yasha, Beau, and Jester! Honestly that's my dilemma rn because I just want Jester to be happy and her and Beau's interactions, and her and Yasha's interactions... Real Gay! Lol. Well, thank you for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	18. Chapter 18

The group spends the rest of the night preparing for the next day before they go to sleep.

Caleb uses his string and wraps it around where they're going to sleep, murmuring arcane words as he goes. When he's finished, he sits down near where Molly has fallen asleep against Yasha's shoulder while she's still petting Frumpkin. She looks over and nods to him, clicking her tongue softly.

Frumpkin gets up and stretches out his limbs before padding back over to Caleb, who smiles tiredly at his cat and begins to pet him.

“Let’s go to bed so we can hit some toads!” Jester says excitedly, practically diving into her tent.

“Ah-” Fjord holds his hand out and then drops it once Jester disappears. “We can talk about this tomorrow, I guess. Goodnight, y’all.”

The next morning, they saddle up the horses and prepare for their journey with their new friend and ally.

“I hate to be the mood dampener, but I think we should approach this cautiously,” Fjord says. “We only know their relative location and we shouldn’t rush headlong into this. We should talk to the people in the town, get information.”

“I think that would be the best way to approach this situation.” Caduceus nods, giving Fjord a smile. “Information is always helpful.”

The group heads back onto the road towards Bijou. They reach the farmlands first, with fields of crops waving at them in the wind and farmers out in the field, watching the rag tag group with barely concealed interest as they pass.

Bijou isn’t a large city by any means, and it’s a stark contrast from the vast metropolis that is Port Virie, the second largest port in the world and the capital of Dreyos. But Bijou is close to the capital and still not small, it just happens to have a lot of citizens who are farmers, so Bijou has a central town area where a lot of the business occurs, and then spreads out with the farmers’ land.

As they ride into town, it doesn’t take them long to notice that this town is made up of mostly halflings. Nott readjusts her mask in the back of the cart nervously.

“Perhaps you should ah, disguise yourself when we stop moving,” Caleb murmurs to her.

Nott nods in understanding, smiling behind her doll’s mask when she sees a bunch of kids running around in the street behind the cart playing tag.

Fjord is driving the cart and getting directions from Caduceus, who has only a little knowledge of the area, but still has the most out of the group. They direct Fjord towards where they think they remember the local tavern is. Using their directions and the directions of helpful nearby townspeople, it doesn’t take long before they're pulling up in front of the building.

It’s a wooden building that’s slightly larger than those around it and looks well-maintained. There's a sign hanging in the front that proudly declares the name of the tavern as “the Haunted Snail.”

Jester lets out a short laugh, her hand flying to her mouth as she giggles. “The Haunted Snail? Why would they name a tavern that?”

“Why don’t we go inside and see?” Caduceus suggests.

Fjord gets off the cart and ties the horses to the posts out front. The others follow suit and the group heads inside as one. The interior is more brightly lit, with sconces and torches lining the walls with a large fire pit in the center of the room with a tall but jolly orc standing in front of it. He looks up from the cauldron he's stirring and gives them a warm smile.

“Welcome to the Haunted Snail. What can I help you with?” He asks, adjusting his chef’s hat. He has an accent similar to Fjord’s.

“Hello, I’m Jester! What's your name?”

“I’m Peghed the Tasty, nice to make your acquaintance.”

“Nice to meet you too! Why’s this place called the Haunted Snail?”

“Mm. You should ask the owner for that information. They love telling newcomers that story.” He nods to the bartender behind the counter. “That’s them.”

The owner is a tall half-orc with short black hair that’s shaved short on the sides. The hair on top is swept to one side, framing kind dark brown eyes. Their tusks are larger than Fjord’s nubby ones, but that isn’t surprising considering he files his down.

“Are you their Dad?” Jester asks.

Peghed chuckles. “No, I’m not. Their Dad is an elf that lives nearby with his wife. He owns one of the farms nearby. You actually may have passed it, it’s called Baelspar Farm.”

Caduceus nods. “We did pass that. And that makes sense.” They nod to themself, noticing the curious gazes of their comrades. “You guys didn’t notice that they have pointier ears than most half-orcs?”

“Huh.” Beau squints at the bartender, who notices her gaze and looks up directly at her. “Shit,” she says under her breath.

Not one to back down, Beau raises her hand in greeting. The bartender returns the gesture and winks at her before going back to their work, pouring a drink for a nearby patron. Beau sighs to herself and turns to her party, who for the most part seem amused, giving Molly a glare for the shit-eating grin they're giving her.

Beau lets out a sigh and walks up to the bar. She can hear Fjord thanking Peghed behind her as the others follow behind her, eager for information. And probably to see Beau attempt to flirt. Ioun knows that she's terrible at that.

Beau leans against the bar, resting an arm on it and momentarily surprised to find that the wood isn’t sticky from years of beer being spilled on it. It doesn’t take long before the bartender notices her and heads to her, tucking their rag in their pocket. They stop right in front of her and practically mirror her position against the bar, just on the opposite side.

“Sup. I’m Beau.”

The bartender doesn’t seem to find her intro abrasive, or perhaps just not in a bad way, judging by the way one side of their mouth tilts up into a smirk.

“Aineas Baelspar. Nice to meet you, Beau.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter!! Hopefully this didn't seem to choppy, I was really struggling in the first part to make it flow with all the jumping around... And guys, I'm starting to DM a group soon and I'm kinda nervous lol. They're literally going to be in this world, so that means I actually have to start planning more stuff out! And Aineas, btw, is the character that I play in a different campaign (they're a 4th lv monk right now)! So it's like a cameo just for me lol. Next chapter, we'll find out why they named their tavern The Haunted Snail! And get information about these Bullywugs, I guess haha. Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


	19. Chapter 19

“Nice to meet you, Beau.” The half-orc says, giving Beau an appraising glance. “What brings you to my bar?” 

“Maybe it’s just a lucky coincidence,” Beau raises an eyebrow at them. 

“Maybe. But I don’t really believe in coincidences. Especially when a herd of people walk into my bar.” Aineas raises their eyebrow back at her.

Beau shrugs. “That’s fair. We’re a group of mercenaries that was hired to take care of the frog problem you guys have been having. We came in here to get information, and then I saw you.”

Aineas’ lips twitch up into a smirk. “And got distracted?”

“Maybe. Or maybe I think that the owner of the local tavern would have information.”

“Or perhaps both.” Aineas shifts their weight on their elbows. “What would you like to know, Beau?”

“Just whatever you know about the frogs. Our resident nerd says they're called Bullywugs, if that helps jog anything.”

“Well, they’ve always been an issue, but it’s gotten worse recently. Which, I’m sure, is why you're here to take care of it. Your resident nerd is right, that is what they're called. They're not too dangerous on their own, but they like to travel in groups. Not to mention that they’ve befriended… something.” Aineas grimaces. 

“I have a feeling that they're not the giant frogs I’ve been warned about,” Beau sighs. “What are they working with? Do you know?”

Aineas rubs their chin absentmindedly before answering. “I don’t know what they're called, but maybe your friend will. But I did see them, I helped the Mirguard fight them back when they attacked with the Bullywugs. I've fought a couple things in my time, but these were…” They trail off and wrinkle their nose, shaking their head before continuing. “It doesn’t matter. They look like these reddish blobs with a truly disconcerting amount of mouths and eyes. They're blobs, so the mouths and eyes are just… all over. The eyes are yellow and slitted, like a cat’s eye, or a frog’s. The mouths are large and full of sharp teeth, and the main mouth has another mouth inside of it.”

“Oof. That sounds gross.” 

“It kind of is, and some people who were brave enough to get close to hit it started getting confused. Including me,” Aineas says sheepishly. “I got confused for a second and wandered off in a random direction. Some of the Mirguard, or some scared citizens, would try to attack each other for a second. The mouths on it are always talking, and it almost sounds like a language but not quite…” They shake their head. “It’s weird.”

“Are they hard to hit?” Beau asks. 

“Not if you manage to avoid becoming confused. They're not hard to hit, it just takes a lot to take them down.”

“Did you and the Mirguard manage to take any down?”

“One, yeah. It would have been two but the other one managed to get away with the Bullywugs and giant frogs. They're not fast, but we were focused on taking the other one down, so it escaped.”

Beau takes a moment to process everything Aineas has said. “Alright. Do you know where they are?”

Aineas pauses to think, squinting as they do so. “I know the general direction they retreated in, but not exactly where they are… Actually, I might know someone who   
might know where they are. His name’s Jo, well, it’s Jovoe but everyone here calls him Jo. He should be coming in the bar later, he sings here every other night. He’s trying to write an epic song about this whole thing.”

“How much longer until he comes in?” Beau asks, glancing back at her group, and none of them have bothered to hide their interest in her conversation.

Aineas sees her looking and lowers their voice so that only she can hear. “Enough time for me to get to know you, perhaps show you the backroom.”

Beau’s eyebrow goes up and she turns back towards Aineas, an automatic smirk on her face. But then she thinks of Yasha and shakes her head, her voice lowered too so that only Aineas hears her. “Trust me, that’s tempting, but I’m technically engaged right now. I don’t want to mess that up.”

Aineas nods. “I understand that. Is it one of those set up ones?” They wait for her to nod before continuing. “If you need an out, just let me know. I’d be happy to be used as an excuse if you need one.”

“Thanks for the offer, but uh. She's pretty cool. She's just way out of my league.”

Aineas laughs. “Trust me, I know that feeling well. But she may feel the same way about you. This is one of those things where you need to communicate. It’s the key to a good relationship, whether that’s platonic, romantic, or familial.” They hold up a finger like they're about to say something really profound. “Communigaytion.” 

Against her better judgement, a snort of laughter escapes Beau’s lips before she composes herself. “Thanks for that.”

Aineas’ smile grows. “No problem. And Jovoe should get here in like an hour. You and your friends have time to sit and eat or sit and drink if you’d like.”

“Great, thanks.” Beau rifles in her pocket and pulls out a gold coin, putting it on the bar. “For your help. And the advice.”

“Thank you.” Aineas quickly pockets the gold coin, giving Beau a smile. 

“I’ll take a round of drinks for everyone.”

“Alright.” Aineas glances over to the others. “There's eight of you? That’ll come to two silver, eight copper.”

Beau’s eyebrows furrow. She's very used to going to bars and ordering ale, and that doesn’t seem quite right. “Shouldn’t it be more?”

Aineas winks at Beau as they begin to pour drinks. “The one for you is on the house.”

Beau shakes her head and hands over four silver pieces. “You don’t have to do that.”

Aineas makes eye contact with Beau and can see that she won't let them try to give back a silver piece. They accept the coins and give Beau a smile. “Go over to your friends, I’ll bring the drinks over once I’m done.”

“They're not…” Beau trails off. “Thanks.”

Aineas nods and hands her the two already poured ales with a wink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's a wild chapter being posted! Sorry it took so long y'all, February was NUTS! My campaign where the players are playing in this world have already taken out the Bullywugs lol, and it's a campaign of gays so there are three rogues... It's a really fun time :) Thank you all for reading and for your patience! Your lovely comments mean a lot! Stay awesome!


	20. Chapter 20

Before Beau heads back to the group, she turns back around to face Aineas again. “Would you mind making one of these ales a milk?”

“Not at all. Hold on a moment.” Beau sets down one of the ales in her hands to be able to pick up the milk for Jester. “I can bring that ale over with the rest of them.”

Beau nods her head to Aineas. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Go give your girls their drinks.” They wink at a confused looking Beau as she pauses before walking towards her group. 

Beau sets down the drinks she has in her hands in front of Yasha and Jester, sitting down in the space they left for her between them.

“Thank you,” Yasha says quietly as she sips the ale.

“Thank you, Beau!” Jester looks down at the drink in front of her and a smile lights up her face, making her appear even more radiant than usual. “You remembered I like milk.”

Beau scratches awkwardly at the shaved sides of her head. “Uh, yeah. I know you don’t drink.”

“You're very sweet.” Beau can feel her cheeks darken, both at Jester's words and how she lean in close to Beau. “So? What happened?”

Beau knows Jester well enough to know she's asking about how it went with Aineas, but she pretends she doesn’t know that and gives the others the information about the Bullywugs she was given. 

“Caleb, have you ever heard of anything like that?” Fjord asks him.

“Yes.” Caleb absentmindedly scratches at his arms. “They are called Gibbering Mouthers and they're not fun to fight. The sounds their mouths make can temporarily confuse a person if they get close enough to it. They aren’t particularly fast or good at hurting people, but they are hardy. We will have to be careful.”

Caduceus pats Caleb’s shoulder, making him jump slightly with the first pat, not having expected it. “Don’t worry, Mister Caleb. Jester and I can help anyone who falls down back up. And we aren’t rushing into this. It will be alright.”

“Do we want to talk to this Jo guy?” Nott asks as Aineas passes out the rest of the poured ales. “It sounds like pretty much all we don’t know is where they are.”

“He doesn’t have much more information than I do, but he may know where they went.” Aineas tells the table as they set a tankard in front of the rest of the group, getting various thanks from everyone. “He should be here pretty soon, assuming you don’t want to head out right away.”

“Thank you. And may I have hot water to make tea instead, please?” Caduceus asks politely, almost absentmindedly handing the tankard over to Molly, who's halfway through draining their own tankard.

“You're lovely.” Molly mumbles to Caduceus as they set down their mug, their lips turned up in a smile that shows off pointed teeth with froth on their lips. 

“Yes, of course.” Aineas says to Caduceus. “Would you like a tea bag as well?”

“No that’s alright, thank you. I brought some from home,” they answer.

Aineas’ eyebrows scrunch at Caduceus’ answer but they nod and head to the bar to get some hot water for them. They come back with a steaming cup and set it in front of Caduceus, who thanks them before dipping a tea bag they seem to pull out of nowhere into the water.

*** 

It isn’t too long before a halfling with shaggy blond hair strolls into the tavern with a lute strapped onto his back. He has a goofy, wide smile and big eyes that make him appear innocent. Beau looks over to Aineas to ask if that’s Jo, but before she can get any words out, Aineas nods to her.

“That’s Jo. Who wants to go talk to him?” Beau asks.

“I can do it!” Jester gets up and walks over to the halfling without waiting for a response. 

Jester practically towers over the halfling, but they match each other’s sunny energy so easily that it doesn’t seem like it bothers either of them. She sticks out her hand to the bard and shakes his hand.

“Hello, I’m Jester! What's your name?”

“H-hi! I’m Jovoe Lowsong, but you can call me Jo. What can I do you for?” He asks, adjusting his hold on the worn leather-bound notebook in his hands. 

“My friends and I are going to be taking down that frog problem this town has been having. We heard from Aineas you might have information about where they are!”

“Wow, that was mighty kind of them to think of me! And y-yes, I do! They're just right outside town, that-a-way!” He points. “There's a big spooky cave there that they hide out in. I-I followed them that far but uh. I’m not a fighter. I write songs, I’m going to write one about this!” He holds up his finger like he just thought of something. “Speaking of which! You and your friends are going to kill all the frogs, right? Do you guys have like a team name? So that I can put you in my song?”

“I don’t know.” Jester's head cocks to the side slightly and she turns to look at the group. “Do we have a name?”

“Nein,” Caleb answers, not looking up from the map in front of him.

Jester turns back around to face Jo, a bright smile back on her face. “Yes, Nein! We are the Mighty Nein, at your service.”

Jo nods and then looks confused. “There's only eight of you…”

“It’s an irony thing, and also a Zemnian thing.” Jester says, bouncing on her heels.

“Okay? Um, anything else you need to know? Oh, would you like to hear the song?”

“Once it’s done, I would love to! I don’t want you to have artists’ block because you shared it with me, I know that happens sometimes when artists share their unfinished work!”

Jo nods seriously. “You’re very smart. Thank you Miss Jester, I’m going to work on my song right now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's BACK??? It’s me! Hello! It’s been a horrifyingly long time! Thank you guys so much for being patient, this last semester absolutely kicked my ass work-wise and mental health-wise lol But we’re Gucci now! The semester’s done, I got decent grades, and now it’s summer! The time to take a 6-week Calculus course and find a job! But I’ll have more time at the least to write since it’s just the once class! Thank you guys for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!


End file.
